Amritsar, September 6
The Amritsar Municipal Corporation (MC)’s ingeniously devised "name and shame" strategy to recover house tax dues from the defaulters seems to have little impact on the thick skinned, as its house tax team did not find owners of six shops coming out to pay their dues despite drum beats being played out at their doorstep.

The centuries-old practice of “munadi”, which includes drum beating and announcement at a high pitch voice, was all of a sudden revived by the comparatively young MC, which was set up here in 1977. Originally, the history of the civic amenities body here dated back to the British. The holy city got a town committee in 1858.

The "name and shame" drive, which was launched about 10 days ago with an objective of embarrassing defaulters on their turf so that they easily coughed up their pending dues, has had a limited impact on compulsive defaulters.

House Tax department inspector Jatinder Kumar, who took part in today’s operation of collecting dues from defaulters, said owners and operators of many commercial establishments did not come forward to clear their pending dues, which forced them to increase the degree of punishment. Consequently, four shops and a liquor vend were sealed.

The department’s superintendent Pardeep Kumar, who headed the team, said two shops of one Vijay Kumar were sealed in the Ram Bagh area, while the proprietor of another shop, in the same area, Manohar Singh, paid Rs 15,000.

In the Hussainpura area, two shops of one Ashok Kumar were sealed and owner of another shop cleared his dues by paying Rs 22,000.

In the Maqboolpura area, one liquor vend was sealed for not clearing a due of Rs 22,000 and Khazan Singh of another shop paid Rs 13,000.

The drive had a good beginning on August 29, as the MC coffers got richer by Rs 9.1 lakh.

Sushant Bhatia of the house tax department said every strategy faced some hiccups with the passage of time, but it was a wonderful concept which other civic bodies in different parts of the state were set to emulate. The department is fed up with those residents who are not paying their house tax, water and sewerage bills. So, this innovative plan was floated. Special dholis (drum beaters) have been engaged for announcing the name of defaulters. Besides, notices are also being pasted in their localities.

In the first phase, the department has prepared a list of nearly 110 defaulting properties to recover Rs 35 lakh. In the last financial year, the department garnered only Rs 18.5 crore against the target sum of Rs 22 crore.

Amritsar, September 6
In a major catch, the Chheharta police today claimed to have arrested two members of a racket active in the district courts and allegedly involved in securing bail to criminal elements on the basis of fake identities and documents.

Those arrested include the kingpin of the racket Gursharanjit Singh of New Dashmesh Nagar, Kot Khalsa, besides Sikander Singh of the Majitha road area.

Their two accomplices, Gurdeep Singh and Dalbir Singh, are already in jail for allegedly committing similar offences.

Interestingly, the accused continue to run their "business" as usual even as they were wanted by the police in a similar case registered at the Chheharta police station in May this year. The police has booked about a dozen persons in this connection.

According to information, Gursharanjit and Sikander Singh used to secure bails on fake identities of Harpreet Singh and Deep Singh, respectively. They had made fake voter identity cards.

Police investigation revealed that the gang also included women, who are headed by a relative of Gursharanjit. The group used to roam in the district court in groups in search of their clients. The police authorities said that recently they secured the bail of a snatcher Jaspal Singh, who is now absconding.

It may be recalled a case under Sections 467, 468, 471, 473, 420, 419 and 120-B of the IPC has been registered against them. Among those who were booked in the case include Lucky of Guru Nanak Pura, Sona, Kaka of Gobind Nagar, Majitha Road, Billa of Kot Mti Singh, besides about half a dozen unidentified persons.

Parminder Singh, investigating officer, said earlier the police had recovered 17 identity (ID) cards, out of which eight were of nambardars of different villages with their photographs pasted on them. Besides, the police had seized three fake stamps of nambardars of different villages, 200 forged papers from Gurdip's possession arrested by the police in May month.

Gursharanjit Singh was also wanted in many similar cases in Ludhiana. He had shifted his base to Amritsar.

Parminder said taking the advantage of bails procured on the basis of fake documents, the criminals used to abscond and due to fake documents, it becomes difficult to trace them again.

Amritsar, September 6
The Beas police has booked a junior engineer (JE) of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) among two persons in connection with the death of a labourer who got electrocuted after dangling live electric wires fell on him.

The deceased's wife alleged that the accused JE repaired the wire to save himself and the owner of the house where her husband, identified as Sai Dass (35), was working as a labourer.

The police authorities said a case under Section 304-A of the IPC (causing death by negligence) had been registered against the JE, identified as Mohan Lal, and owner of the house Jaspal Singh.

Seesa, the deceased's wife, stated to the police that yesterday her husband was doing some work at the front gate of the house of Jaspal Singh. She alleged that suddenly a couple of dangling live electric wires fell on her husband and he was seriously electrocuted.

Surinder Singh, investigating officer, said instead of taking him to hospital for treatment, the owner put soil and sand on his body. When information of the incident was passed to the JE, he also did not inform the police and instead repaired the wire and went away. “Had they taken the victim Sai Dass to hospital, he might have been saved,” said the police officer, adding that the victim had three minor school-going children.

He said a case had been registered in this connection. No arrest has been made so far as the accused have fled.

Amritsar, September 6
The city police has arrested Gulshan Bali, alias Kaku Bali, a resident of Krishna Nagar, Jora Phatak, for allegedly possessing proscribed drugs.

The police recovered as many 5,000 capsules of intoxicants from his possession. He has been booked under 22/61/85 of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

Investigations revealed that he had been a drug addict and had now started selling capsules for making money for his addiction.

Arjun Singh, investigating officer, said he had not any previous record and as per preliminary probe, he had started this work recently. He said further investigations were under progress to ascertain the source from where he had procured the capsules.

Meanwhile, the police department has arrested nearly a dozen persons on charges of drug peddling and bootlegging. — TNS

Amritsar, September 6
A woman was allegedly killed by her in-laws for dowry in Kandowali village.

The police has booked the victim's husband and her in-laws for murdering and disposing of her body.

The accused have been identified as Kirpal Singh (husband), Sukhpal Kaur (mother-in-law), Rashpal Singh and Nirmal Singh, both brother-in-laws, all residents of Kandowali village under Jhander police station.

Station House Officer (SHO) Mohit Kumar said a case under Section 304-B and 201 of the IPC has been registered against the accused on the statement of Rashpal Singh of Batala Road and the deceased's brother.

Rashpal told the police that his sister Gurjit Kaur (26) was married to Kirpal Singh about three years ago. He alleged that the victim's in-laws used to harass mentally and physically for brining insufficient dowry. He alleged that on August 22 he received a call from Kirpal Singh that Gurjit left the house after a dispute between them and did not return.

Rashpal Singh said they started searching for Gurjit Kaur whose body was later found in Kandowali canal yesterday.

Mohit said Gurjit's family filed a written complaint with the police and accused her in-laws for killing her and later threw her body into the canal to dispose it of.

The Station House Officer further said the post-mortem examination of the body has been conducted and report is awaited. The exact cause behind the death would be ascertained only after the post mortem report came, the SHO informed.

Amritsar, September 6
With the state government releasing fresh cut-off date for colonisers and individuals to get their unauthorised colonies and constructions regularised by October 7, so far only 115 individuals have come forward to submit their applications, while colonisers are yet to respond in this regard.

In the entire district, the MC receives regularisation fee for the properties falling in the unauthorised colonies within the MC limits, while the Amritsar Development Authority (ADA) collects the same from the illegal colonies falling outside the MC limits.

Of the 115 applications received, 68 were received by the MC and remaining 47 were got by the ADA.

ADA chief administrator Sandeep Rishi said tentatively there were 167 unauthorised colonies having developed outside the MC limits. He said so far 47 plot holders and house owners had submitted their applications and deposited nearly Rs 12 lakh with the department. He added that till now, though no coloniser had deposited the compounding fee, many queries were being received from colonisers on a daily basis. He expected that they would start depositing the fee soon after the release of the deadline.

He added that those house owners who paid the development fee at the time of the approval of the layout plans were no longer required to pay the fee, but they needed to get a certificate under the new plan.

MC’s Municipal Town Planning department is engaged in collecting fees from illegal colonies. MTP Des Raj said 241 colonies were categorised as illegal in the MC limits. Of these, 190 colonies were having complete civic amenities like roads, water supply, sewerage, street lights and others. He said colonisers in these areas had to shell out Rs 4 lakh per acre.

He said the entire area had been divided among four assistant town planners (ATPs) and a senior ATP was overseeing the work to deliver the desired results.

However, the MTP has an uphill task in identifying and getting compounding fee from the colonisers, as many colonies were set up decades ago. About this, MTP Des Raj said a committee headed by MC’s additional commissioner, besides the SDM and MTP as members would be constituted on September 25. The committee would search for and identify the colonisers and then legal cases would be filed against these.

The SAD-BJP coalition government has framed the policy with the objective of bringing all unauthorised colonies and buildings in the planning framework and to regularise development, facilitate implementation of the Master Plan’s land use, improving circulation pattern of streets and providing basic amenities to residents of these areas.

The policy envisages compulsory application for regularisation by owners of plots and buildings in the unauthorised colonies for the compounding/regularisation of their plots within 45 days of the notification of the policy.

The composition fee for the regularisation of the unauthorised colonies constructed before August 17, 2007, would be 0.5 per cent of collector rate as on April 1, 2013, subject to a minimum of Rs 25,000 and a maximum of Rs 1 lakh per acre.

For unauthorised colonies constructed after August 17, 2007, the fee would be 2 per cent of the collector rate subject to a minimum of Rs 1 lakh and a maximum of Rs 5 lakh per acre.

Ten per cent of the total composition fee would be realised along with application, 15 per cent within one month of application and 75 per cent in three equal six monthly installments along with 12 per cent interest.

A rebate of 5 per cent would be allowed if the composition fee is paid in lump sum at the time of application.

Amritsar, September 6
Two persons were killed in a road mishap near Nangali village on the Fatehgarh Churian road in the wee hours here today. The incident occurred when an overloaded truck turned turtle and fell on its two passengers. The driver of the truck, however, escaped with minor injuries.

The deceased were identified as Amar Singh and Darshan Singh, both residents of Kalanour. The truck, laden with wooden logs, was coming to Amritsar from the Fatehgarh Churian side for selling woods. The driver was identified as Manjit Singh.

The police said the victims were wood traders. They said the incident occurred at about 5 am. It took place as the truck was overloaded and it lost its balance and turned turtle. — TNS

Amritsar, September 6
Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd is set to foray in Punjab with the launch of Trilium, a retail destination, said a press release issued here.

Spread over a land area of 5.54 acres, this 700,000 square feet retail mall will offer an experience in shopping, dining and entertainment to shopping aficionados, food connoisseurs and mall-goers in Punjab.

Developed by architectural firm RTKL, USA, 'Trilium' will be earthquake resistant. Stat-of-the-art technological and design elements have been incorporated in construction operations and management, creating an exclusive feel and convenience for customers.

The retail destination will cater to multiple needs all under the one roof. Trilium will have an eclectic blend of retail and entertainment spaces that includes a hypermarket, departmental stores, family entertainment centre, six-screen multiplex, food court, banquet hall and a central civic space at the entry.