Amritsar, September 18
The message is loud and clear: either pay up taxes or face humiliation. Now, the Amritsar Municipal Corporation’s water and sewerage wing too has adopted the method of beating drums to realise the dues from defaulters, the tactic already being practiced by the House Tax Department.

The Municipal Commissioner has given a daily target of Rs 11 lakh to each of the official of the water and sewerage wing. The officials have been entrusted with the responsibility of recovering dues. Those who still fail to pay their dues would get their water and sewerage connections snapped.

Special ‘dholis’ (drum beaters) have been engaged for the purpose, who would accompany the MC officials during the recovery drive.

Having fed up with the residents not paying their house tax, water and sewerage dues, the Amritsar MC has devised this innovative method of shaming the offenders with drum beats besides pasting notices in the localities where they reside.

Eight teams have been constituted which would be supervised by four superintendent-level officers and six sub-divisional officers (SDOs).

It has been learnt that Municipal Commissioner DPS Kharbanda resorted to the drumming and shaming campaign for the recovery of water and sewerage dues from defaulters. It has been yielding the desired results for the House tax Department.

Kharbanda has also ensured that a police party would accompany the recovery team. An ASI-level police officer with five constables has been deputed to accompany the recovery team.

The Municipal Commissioner said no leniency would be shown when it comes to recovering the dues from the offenders.

“The MC has no other source of income except for realising the dues from the defaulters. We resorted to the practice of shaming the defaulters because they never adhere to our repeated warnings to clear their dues. We have prepared a list of over 100 defaulting properties, the owners of which should either pay their dues on time or get ready to face humiliation. If they still do not bother to clear their dues, their water and sewerage connections would be snapped instantly. The officials concerned have been directed to take instant action in this regard. We can even attach their properties through a legal procedure under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act,” he said.

Amritsar, September 18
A youth lost his life after he got entangled in suspended electric wires and fell from his motorcycle near Jafarkot village here late last evening.

The deceased, identified as Tarsem Singh, was going to Bhindisaida from Sarangdev village when the incident took place.

The police has registered a case under Section 304-A and 427 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against unidentified persons in this regard.

Sukwhinder Singh, a resident of Sarangdev and the deceased's cousin, said they were riding separate motorcycles. He said his cousin got entangled in low electric wires near Jafarnagar village due to which he fell down from his motorcycle and died on the spot.

Amritsar, September 18
A clerk posted at the Government Medical College here has been sentenced to two-year rigorous imprisonment by a local court for siphoning of money from public exchequer.

The accused, Rajinder Kumar Pappu, had been fraudulently drawing the salary of the college nurses who had gone abroad. It is a common practice among government employees to go abroad after taking a leave. But, it also came to light that a few of them never returned.

But Pappu made a mistake when diverted funds from the account of a nurse who was still working at the hospital. This happened as the names of the two employees were similar. Interestingly, the salary was transferred to the account of employee who was abroad.

When the employee who was still working at the hospital enquired about the matter the fraud came to light. Rajinder Kumar Pappu had reportedly siphoned off around Rs 8 lakh in this way.

Amritsar, September 18
The continuously soaring onion prices have taken the charm off Punjabi platter as the vegetable is fondly savoured with widely consumed Mah Ki Daal besides famed roasted and butter chicken.

With the price of onion skyrocketing in the local market, the majority of households, dhabas and restaurants have taken it off their kitchens. The prices of the commodity are hovering somewhere between Rs 70 to Rs 80 per kg.

Satpal Singh, who has been running a dhabha for the past 40 years, said onion no longer remained economical for the small-time dhabas and their customers.

Satpal's dhaba dished out a plate comprising four 'tandoori chapatis', a small bowl of 'mah Ki daal' with little salad or pickle at Rs 20.

"At this rate, we can not afford to provide of onion salad while additional increase in price would make my customers go away."

Hotelier APS Chatha said many a reputed restaurants and hotels have not excluded onion from their platters so far.

Harbhajan Singh, a daily wager, said he discontinued buying onion for his family after it zoomed to Rs 50 from Rs 35 per kg. He said with his limited kitchen budget it was not possible to afford onion anymore. He said the government must check onion hoarding by cash-rich traders instead of waiting for the arrival of the next crop.

Harleen Kaur, a housewife, said it was an irony that a kilogram of apple could be procured at Rs 30-50 depending upon the quality from the market while onion prices had gone up alarmingly high. She said due to an ad-hoc approach of the government, the ministry and the department concerned failed to make alternate arrangement for procuring onion.

She said the media had alerted the country of rising onion prices and its depleting stocks weeks ago. The ministers concerned only made customary statements, she said, adding that the vegetable could have been procured from foreign countries in general and neighbouring nations in particular by the government. The move may have brought down the prices of onion in the domestic market and prompted the hoarders to bring it out from their godowns.

A wholesale vegetable dealer said generally the stored onion is consumed between June and August as the supply of fresh crops stopped. However, this duration got prolonged this time around which caused the prices to continue increasing.

He said one of the reasons could be delay in the arrival of fresh crop of onion from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The vegetable dealers from Maharashtra have cited the reason behind the delay in the arrival of crops from the southern states to delay in harvesting in the wake of rains, he said.

Pakistani actress Haya Sehgal poses during a press conference in Amritsar on Wednesday.

Amritsar, September 18
Actors are generally seen entering politics once past the peak of their career. In a contrarian of sorts, Congress leader and the Vice-President of the National SC/ST Commission Raj Kumar Verka has made his on-screen debut in Punjabi film Dil Pardesi Ho Gya, which will be released on Friday.

The array of actors donning the mantle of a politician in real life is exhaustive. Be it late Sunil Dutt, superstar Amitabh Bachchan or Vinod Khanna, Govinda, Raj Babbar, the list goes on.

Having contested the elections thrice so far, Verka first successfully contested from the Verka Assembly constituency in 2002 and was defeated from the same in 2007. He, however, was elected from Amritsar West in 2012.

The MLA-turned-actor has played the role of an Indian Army officer in the film which portrays the romance between an Indian boy and a Pakistani girl in Bangkok.

Interestingly, the role of lead female actor has been played by Pakistani actress Sanaa.

Other Pakistanis who acted in the movie are Sardar Kamal, a comedian, and Haya Sehgal, who made a special appearance as a dancer in the film.

Haya today crossed over to India from the Attari-Wagah joint check-post. A trained dancer in hip-hop and contemporary genres of dances, she has appeared in four Urdu and Punjabi movies in Pakistan as a lead actress.

Haya was all praise for the professionalism and expertise of the Punjabi film crews here. “It was my first appearance in an Indian film. I got the hang of latest technology, expertise and professionalism available in the Punjabi film industry here,” she shared.

Film director Thakur Tapaswi, who is also the writer of the film, said the cast of the movie also includes Shakti Kapoor, Raza Muraad, Prikshit Sahni, Mohan Joshi (hero), Inderjit Niku, Sardar Sohi, Dr Surinder Sharma. It also has late Jaspal Bhatti playing a role in it. It was his last movie. Mohammad Sadiq has sung the film’s songs.

Amritsar, September 18
The Municipal Corporation's demolition drive against unsafe buildings in the city came to a halt as its staff is busy in regularisation of illegal colonies. Municipal Town Planner Des Raj said as the limited staff was available with the department and regularisation of illegal colonies was time bound , the entire energy of the staff had been put into it. So far, the Municipal Town Planning Department (MTP) has pulled down 14 unsafe structures in the city.

He added that among 140 dilapidated buildings that were to be razed under the drive, six buildings were recognised as extremely unsafe.

He said these would be demolished soon. Like the previous years, many old buildings collapsed in the rainy season this year, resulting in several deaths.

Following the Jalandhar factory collapse in April, 2012, the state government had ordered a statewide safety audit of commercial and industrial buildings. Scores of such unsafe century-old buildings, both residential and commercial, had been crying for attention of the authorities. The authorities claim that no-objection certificates (NOC) were not granted to these buildings.

Majority of these old buildings are situated in the walled city areas like Ghee Madi, Dharam Singh Market, Katra Ahluwalia Bazaar, Guru Bazaar, Pratap Bazaar, Cheel Mandi, Ghantagarh, Haveli Zamadara, Namak Mandi, Gali Chhajju, Katra Karam Singh and around the Golden Temple.

The MTP Department carried out a survey to identify such buildings. Any building, whether commercial or residential, has to obtain a no-objection certificate from the MTP Department.

None of these century-old buildings could qualify for this certificate. People are still living in these potential disasters or running businesses from there.

These buildings have been used for commercial purposes for the past six decades and since their structures are in a very dilapidated condition, NOCs cannot be issued to them as per the law, say MTP officials.

The MTP issues NOCs to these rickety structures only for the purpose of obtaining a bank loan, not on the basis of structural safety.

They maintained that the occupants of these buildings were well aware of the risk involved in staying in these buildings. However, still people do not want to vacate these. Many people do not have enough resources to repair these while some are tenants.

The district administration in collaboration with the MC and the Improvement Trust had submitted a policy to the Ministry of Local Bodies under which occupants of these buildings were to be offered alternate accommodation.

Amritsar, September 18
The district Health Department discovered an illegal soft drink factory at Loharka road today. The factory, TC Fruits and Beverages, was making soft drinks and selling them using labels similar to those of big brands.

District Health Officer Dr Shivkaran Singh Kahlon said the packaged water and soda bottles were recovered from the place. He said the labels did not mention any batch number and expiry date. He said the factory was also making apple-flavoured drink and was selling it under different names. Kahlon said the samples of the soft drinks have been sent to the food testing laboratory.

The health team also visited Radhika Food Products, a factory near Khalchian today. The department had sealed the factory earlier this week. "The factory owner had a prior information of the raid and he ran away from the place," said Kahlon, adding that six samples from the place were collected in the presence of the owner. The factory manufactured different kinds of sausages," said Kahlon. He added that six samples were collected from the place. Kahlon said a complaint against the factory owner was also lodged. — TNS

Amritsar, September 18
It seems defaulters do not want to face the "drum beats" as they volunteered to pay the house tax to the MC's recovery team without any fuss. For a change, the recovery team led by House Tax Superintendent Subhash Chopra made 100 per cent collection today. The team had gone on a routine recovery drive without any drummer.

The team comprising Inspector Gurpreet Singh Bakshi and Ramesh Kumar, clerk, also, had shortlisted seven defaulters but could visit only five defaulters and collected around Rs 55,000, which were not paid by the defaulters for long.

Superintendent Subhash Chopra said properties were not sealed as their proprietors paid their dues on the spot. Today, the team visited several areas, including Abadi Durgiana, Islamabad, Damgunj, Ram Nagar colony, Kishankot.

"We had identified the defaulters in these localities. Earlier, they were warned through the beating of drums. This worked wonders when we visited the defaulters without drummers. The defaulters paid their dues. We could achieve 100 per cent target," he said.

Amritsar, September 18
Two snatchers were held by the police today. The police recovered Rs 8,000 in cash and 750 gm narcotic powder from their possession. They have been identified as Gaganpreet Singh and Gurpreet Singh, both residents of Kot Mit Singh area.

Anil Kumar, the investigating officer said the accused were nabbed near Celebration Mall. He said the accused tried to flee from the spot after seeing the police. However, they were successfully chased and nabbed by the police team.

During interrogation the accused confessed that they had snatched Rs 5,000 from Anita Thukral, a local resident, a few days ago.

The police also recovered a Samsung tab, which belongs to a local women doctor.

They had snatched it near BBK DAV College on the Lawerence Road.

He said both the accused were habitual offenders and were involved in a number of similar snatching cases.

They have been sent one-day police remand. Anil Kumar said a case under Sections 382 and 411 of the IPC and 21/22/61/85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against them.

The police recovered 500 gm narcotic powder from Gaganpreet while 250 gm narcotic powder was seized from Gurpreet. The police said that they had confiscated the motorcycle used in the crime.

Meanwhile, in yet another snatching case, two unidentified motorcycle-borne youths snatched a gold chain of Kirandeep Kaur, a resident of Ghee Mandi area, when she was going towards Gurdwara Santokhsar.

A case under Section 382 of the IPC has been registered in this regard.

Jalandhar, September 18
The National Scheduled Castes Commission (NSCC) has taken a serious view of the Punjab Government's non-seriousness about the implementation of the various state schemes and plans, meant for the welfare of the state scheduled castes. The commission has decided to summon the state government on October 7 with a formal action taken report about the same. This was told by the commission's chairman Dr Panna Lal Punia to a delegation of the National Scheduled Castes Alliance (NSCA) president, Paramjit Singh Kainth, during a meeting held at Dr Punia's official residence in New Delhi.

Giving information in this regard, Kainth told the mediapersons that Punia had assured the delegation of the NSCA that the commission was going to ask the state government, particularly the chief secretary to show some kind of seriousness about the state scheduled castes, having a population of over 35 per cent. He also said the government was playing with the sentiments of the weaker sections and deprived castes living in the state.

Kainth revealed that during the meeting, Punia expressed his seriousness over the fact that the state government had failed to come forward on the earlier complaint made by the Chamar Mahan Sabha, in which it was raised that the state government had failed to spend Rs 4,039 crore sanctioned under various welfare schemes drafted for the upliftment of the state scheduled castes.

Amritsar, September 18
Bahujan Samaj Party President Parkash Singh Jandali on Wednesday announced that Pardeep Singh Walia would be the party candidate from the Amritsar in the Lok Sabha elections.

The BSP has also announced to hold a rally at Gol Bagh on September 22. While ruling out any chance of pre-poll alliance with any party in the state, Jandali said the BSP would expose anti-people policies of the UPA and the NDA in the rally.

Amritsar, September 18
The Punjab police has arrested over 12 persons on charges of drug-peddling and bootlegging. The Amritsar rural police nabbed nine persons. Among those arrested, include Balwinder Singh of Lave village with 100 gm narcotics powder, Amandeep Singh of Rose Avenue, Ajnala, and Charanjit Singh of Bhakna Khurd were arrested with 10 gm heroin each, Samrat Singh of Raipur Kalan and Jaspreet Singh of Kala Basia (Kartarpur) with 5 gm heroin each. Bhupinder Singh of Buttar Kalan and Balbir Singh of Sohia Khurd were held with intoxicant powder. Partap Singh of Sohian Khurd was nabbed with 350 capsules and tablets.

The Amritsar rural police also booked four persons, including Jaspal Masih, German Singh and Jaspal Singh, all residents of Nangal Wanja for bootlegging. However, they managed to escape from the spot while the police seized 400 kg of lahan (illicit liquor). The city police arrested Ajay Kumar of Jagdambay Colony with 400 intoxicant capsules while Amandeep Singh of Anngarh and Jagjit Singh of Gurnam Nagar were arrested with 160 gm narcotics powder and 7 gm smack respectively. Sanjay Kumar of Bhushanpura, Ankush Mahajan of Guru Ke Mehal, Lakhwinder Singh of Mustafabad and Satpal, alias Pappy,of Putlighar were arrested with illegal liquor. — TNS

Visitors have a look at paintings during an exhibition at an art gallery in Shimla. A Tribune photograph

Amritsar, September 18
A group of five women artists from the city have just returned after receiving accolades and a whooping response for their art show at Shimla. Invited by the department of visual arts, HP University, Shimla, the five artists - Mala Chawla, Ravinder Dhillon, Simarjit Kaur KApoor, Navneet Kaur and Simarjit Kaur Bhullar- held a three-day exhibition of their art work at Shimla.

The artists displayed 30 of their best creations during the exhibition . "Most of our work was based on themes and our art show was held under the banner of Rays of Colours," shares Mala Chawla. Mala, who worked with different moods of nature and landscapes, adds that the people were more appreciative than back home. "We got overwhelming response on all the three-days of the exhibition and the understanding and appreciation of the art is more there," Mala said.

The five artists worked on various themes. Navneet's work had a glimpse of the tribal folk art whereas Ravinder Dhillon paintings are based on women and Buddha. Simarjit Kaur Bhullar's work depicted social standings and desires of women. Simarjit Kaur Kapoor, who worked on the Radha-Krishna series, says,"The motive was to promote and highlight women artists and various art forms."

Teachers take part in a capacity-building programme at Bhavan’s SL Public School in Amritsar on Wednesday. A Tribune photograph

Expressions India conducted a one-day capacity-building programme sponsored by the CBSE on life skills, attitudes, values, health and wellness for teachers at Bhavan’s SL Public School today. Manika Nayal, counsellor and psychologist, was the resource person along with Bindu Sharma and Babita Dogra. In this programme, various topics, which come under the CBSE CCE programme, like perspective building on life skills development, identification of different life skills were covered by Nayal in detail. Besides, she also made everyone aware about the CBSE’s different tools and techniques, recording and documentation, application of life skills in classrooms and scaling policy of scholastic grades on the basis of co-scholastic grades under the CCE programme.

Students excel in exams

Students of MSc fashion designing and merchandising at BBK DAV College for Women made the institution proud by achieving top positions in GNDU exams. Isha Khanna and Ankita Khanna bagged the second and the fourth position respectively in GNDU while Anjana Bawa also made it to the merit list. Principal Dr Neelam Kamra congratulated the students and the teachers for their efforts and asked the students to keep the same spark. — TNS