The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Rs 7 lakh, jewellery ‘stolen’ from house PK Jaiswar Tribune News Service Amritsar, October 26 Thieves stole Rs 7 lakh and gold jewellery worth several lakhs of rupees from the residence of Raghav Sharma in Bank Colony on the Majitha road last evening. The family suspected the involvement of a known person in the theft. Akshay Sharma, a relative of the family, said the incident occurred when Raghav and his mother had gone to the Sadar police station regarding a complaint lodged by the family against that person. He said when they returned they found the locks of the house broken and cash and jewellery missing. He claimed that the "thief" taking the advantage of their absence stole around Rs 7 lakh and gold jewellery weighing about 250 gm worth several lakhs of rupees. He said Sushil Kumar, owner of the house and father of Raghav, was in the UK and that Raghav and his mother lived alone in the house. He said the family had been constructing a new house for which they had kept the money in the almirah. However, the police is suspicious of the theft theory being claimed by the family. Vavinder Mahajan, SHO, Sadar police station, said the preliminary investigations were telling a different story than what the family had been claiming. He said locks, which the family claimed to have been broken, were in good condition, while there were no fingerprints of outsiders on the almirah. “Still we are probing the case and waiting for the forensic reports,” he said, while adding that the police was also looking into the bank transactions which had been made in the recent past to ascertain the truth. 3 bootleggers arrested Several bootleggers involved in the smuggling of liquor in the city area attacked a patrolling police party, which signalled them to stop in the Guru Ki Wadali area late last evening. The police nabbed three of them, while one of their accomplices managed to escape. Those arrested were identified as Gurcharan Singh and his brother Sukhdev Singh, both residents of Khiala Kalan village, and Arshdip Singh of Khasa village. Their accomplice, who dodged the police party, was identified as Sonu of Hetanpura. The police seized 11 boxes of country-made liquor from their possession. Sulakhan Singh, ASI, who was heading the police team, said the four bootleggers were travelling in a Scorpio (PB-02-AH-4067). They were intercepted at Guru Ki Wadali and signalled to stop. The bootleggers tried to sped away by turning the vehicle back. He said when head constable Dilbagh Singh tried to stop the vehicle, the bootleggers took out a sharp-edged weapon and tried to hit him. The vehicle got out of control and rammed into a wall. A case was registered Youth booked for harassing college girl The Sultanwind police has booked a youth for allegedly harassing a college student and putting her vulgar photographs on the internet. Narinder Singh, father of the victim and a resident of Ram Nagar, Sultanwind Road, in his statement to the police said his daughter was a B.Ed student in Khalsa College here. Navneet Singh Chahal, a resident of Rasulpura village, first developed friendship with her daughter on a social networking site and later started proposing her. Arun Sharma, SHO, Sultanwind police station, said the victim started avoiding him and enraged over this, Navneet Singh Chahal put her vulgar photograph on a social networking site besides threatening her. He said a case under Sections 65, 66 and 67 of the IT Act and Section 506 of the IPC was registered against Navneet Singh Chahal, who had been absconding.
	Residents fume at blocking of way to govt hospital at Fatahpur village Manmeet Singh Gill Tribune News Service Amritsar, October 26 Residents are fuming at the blocking of the way to a government hospital here by the company engaged by the government to construct the building for the new jail complex at Fatahpur village. The company has put barricades on the way leading to the satellite hospital here. As a result residents are facing it difficult to reach the place. The residents demanded that company should clear the path. As a result of the blockade on the road, patients have to use another path which is full of potholes and not paved. "Most of the patients visiting the hospital are pregnant women. The path full of potholes is not safe for them," said an elderly man, Joginder Singh. The residents claimed that the site at which hospital was operating would be taken away by the government as it was part of the plan for the jail. No officials from the Health Department confirmed that they had received any official letter for vacating the hospital building. "A official of the construction company at the site had asked the hospital in charge to vacate the building, but as long as we do not receive a communication from the competent authority, we are going to continue," said an official of the Health Department. The residents rued that the area did not have any other government health institution and they would be facing a problem if the hospital was shut down. The purpose of the satellite hospital was to provide delivery facility to expecting mothers near their residences. "The way to the police station near the hospital has not been blocked. But a hospital is more important for general public than the police station and the barricades should be removed," said Salwant Singh, another resident.
	Dr Navjot Sidhu conducts surprise inspection at Civil Hospital Tribune News Service Amritsar, October 26 Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS), Health and Family Welfare, Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu conducted a surprise inspection at the Jallianwala Bagh Martyrs Memorial Civil Hospital here today. Dr Sidhu took serious note of the garbage scattered in and around the hospital building. She asked the authorities to maintain cleanliness and hygiene. Dr Sidhu issued instructions to the Sanitary Inspector of the Municipal Corporation in the area to make arrangements for the cleanliness of the area around the hospital. The hospital authorities brought the problem of choked sewerage system in the area to the notice of Dr Sidhu. While talking to the Mayor she asked him to get the blocked sewerage cleared. She also asked him for maintenance of road outside the hospital as the visitors had to face a problem because of it. She donated pictures of religious places and Gurus for installation at the hospital. Civil Surgeon Dr Yash Mitra, Senior Medical Officer, Civil hospital, Dr HS Ghai, Chairman, Employees Welfare Committee Rakesh Kumar and Councillor Meenu Sehgal were also present on the occasion.
	Week left for Diwali, firecrackers market yet to come up Neeraj Bagga Tribune News Service Amritsar, October 26 Only a week is left for Diwali, but the city residents are unable to get firecrackers as its market is yet to come up at its designated site in the Ranjit Avenue area. It is expected to be operational on Monday (October 28). Hargun Singh, a Class XI student, said he visited various markets around his house in Basant Avenue, but he did not find crackers being sold there. “I shared this with my friends and they had the same experience. Later, I learnt that the market was to be set up in Ranjit Avenue, but a visit there yesterday disappointed me again,” he said. Similar, views were echoed by customers visiting the proposed site for the Patakha market in posh Ranjit Avenue. Avinash of Sultanwind area said he came all the way to procure firecrackers well in time to celebrate the first Diwali of his grandson who was born about five months ago. He was upset to find that stalls were under the process of being installed. Even as the Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT), on the intervention of the district administration, had issued over 50 allotment letters for temporarily setting up kiosks for selling firecrackers at Ranjit Avenue on October 7, but the traders took much time to set up these (kiosks). The decision was taken after the matter for the setting up of cracker shops in the Jahajgarh area became sub-judice. Though the Amritsar Fire Works Association (AFWA) did not give convincing reason for setting up the kiosks late, but traders stated that in order to avoid mounting cost of running kiosks these were installed late. They reasoned that the festival lasts for a day and the sale of firecrackers picked up couples of day before it. Besides, big firecracker distributors and traders have their godowns on the outskirts of the city, like at Chheharta, Dhapai and Tarn Taran road. It is learnt that these are selling firecrackers to retailers coming from villages in the district. The district administration permitted them to hold makeshift shops of crackers at Ranjit Avenue for the first time. Now, the number of kiosks has been increased to 65. Patakha Market in the Jahajgarh area has already been ruled out to set firecracker shops and the traders have so far not been able to locate a suitable place to run their businesses. After setting up kiosks at the allocated space, these traders would seek licences from the Police Commissioner under the Explosives Act to permit them the sell firecrackers. As per the norms, the Police Commissioner has the power to issue licences for a certain time period to allow the sale of firecrackers, which fall under the category of explosives. Similarly, the Union Government issues licences under the Petroleum and Explosive Safety Act for their storage. The AIT has charged Rs 15,000 from each kiosk. The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) will charge Rs 3,000 from each kiosk in lieu of supplying electricity. A private contractor has charged Rs 25,000 each from traders for setting up kiosks. Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat along with AIT Chairman Sandeep Rishi visited the temporary patakha market at Ranjit Avenue today. Bhagat requested the traders to deposit the security to the PSPCL by Monday to enjoy uninterrupted power supply for temporary connections to kiosks. The Deputy Commissioner prohibited the sale of firecrackers at places other than the designated spot in the city to avoid any untoward incident. Earlier, the wholesale cracker market used to be situated at IDH Market, near the bus stand, and Pappar Wala Bazaar, near the Golden Temple. However, these markets had to be shifted to Jahajgarh in 2000 after a massive fire had broken out at IDH Market in which material worth crores of rupees got perished and loss of human life was also reported in 1999.
	Traders resent removal of multiplicity in VAT Tribune News Service Amritsar, October 26 The state government’s move to remove the multiplicity in Value Added Tax (VAT) on all commodities by imposing it right at the manufacturing level has not found favour with the local traders and distributors. Punjab Beopar Mandal president Amrit Lal Jain resented the move and sought its rollback with immediate effect as he apprehended that once the bill to the ‘single-stage vat regime’ was approved in the forthcoming session then it will amount to the violation of the Vat Act, 2005. Contending that those at the helm of the affairs had promised in 2005, when VAT was implemented, that no other tax would be levied on the trading community. The VAT was introduced in year 2005 after abolishing sales tax regime. He recalled that earlier sales tax system had two distinct systems, tax used to be applied either at the first stage or at the last stage. He said the move was reminiscent of form 22-A as per which ‘before selling of goods, the first distributors had to issue a form 22 A to the purchaser that he had collected the tax from him’. He added that the government was simplifying system for its own convenience for garnering revenue while a worst type of tax system for traders which was not found anywhere in any state of the country. He reasoned that ‘if manufacturer or the distributors sell the goods on MRP rates, then the purchaser will get a new type of certificate which department will introduce in each and every sale. Dealers having yearly turnover for more than Rs one crore have to deposit monthly VAT. Any dealer if he deposits Rs 10 lakh VAT in a month, this new system on VAT on MRP he will have to deposit at least Rs 20 lakh. Whereas, normally the goods are sold on credit basis for a period ranging from one to three months. The first seller will ultimately utilise his entire funds into VAT deposit and his manufacturing or distribution system will collapse due to lack of funds. He questioned the new system when goods and service tax (GST) is scheduled to be introduced in 2014 in the country replacing VAT, excise, service tax, advance tax, local taxes, etc. The PPBM expressed its surprise over state government’s frequent move of changing VAT Act like e-trip, advance tax and changes in VAT form no. 15, etc. It described the single-stage vat regime as illegal and unconstitutional as it doesn’t have any provision in VAT Act 2005. PPBM will call a mahasamelan of beoparis of the state after festival season is over and will chalk out a programme to oppose this system and also take legal opinion to challenge it in court.
	Police fails to identify drugs seized from Indo-Pak peddlers PK Jaiswar Tribune News Service Amritsar, October 26 The synthetic drugs seized from the notorious Indo-Pak smuggler, Balwinder Singh Billa, alias Sarpanch or Chairman, and his relative Gurjinder Singh Kala have turned into a mystery for the local police which has decided to send the sample for chemical examination to Kharar as they have failed to identify its type. “The examination carried out at the local level confirmed the seized contraband was not heroin. It seems that this is some new kind of drug and therefore we have decided to send it to a chemical laboratory at Kharar for examination to ascertain its salt,” said Vavinder Mahajan, SHO Sadar police station. Billa and Kala were nabbed by the Sadar police on October 22 with 1 kg of synthetic drugs which they had procured from a Delhi-based drug peddler amounting Rs 1 lakh. Later, during their interrogations the police had recovered over 1 kg of heroin from near their residences located in Preet Vihar situated on Airport road. The SHO said the two accused were presented before the court today which had sent him to two day police remand for further investigations. The police has also arrested him in the earlier case in which the police held two drug peddlers Ripudaman Singh and Baljinder Fukra and recovered 1 kg of heroin from their possession. They told the police that they had procured the contraband from Billa. The Police Department has also started to look into the properties which Balwinder has procured during past one decade. According to police officials, Billa has over 150 acres of land besides a farm house near Chandigarh and several residential buildings on Airport road. The SHO said they were investigating the sources from which these properties were accumulated by Billa. The investigations carried out by the police till now revealed that he used to shelter over a dozen drug peddlers. He remained Sarpanch of his native border Havellian village (Tarn Taran) for 10 years. He even used to finance these smugglers. Due to his close links in the ruling party nobody dare to lay their hands on him.
	gang rape case National SC Commission summons commissioner Tribune News Service Amritsar, October 26 Even as the city police has failed to arrest three accused allegedly involved in the gang rape of a Class IX student and a Karate player on October 21, the National Scheduled Caste Commission today took a serious note of the incident and directed the police officials to nab the culprits soon. It has asked them to submit an action taken report within a week in this regard. Rajkumar Verka, Vice-chairman of the commission, yesterday summoned the police commissioner. However, Deputy Commissioner of Police Dr Kaustubh Sharma along with ACP Gaurav Garg today appeared before the commission on his behalf. The victim along with her mother also appeared before the commission and narrated the whole instance. DCP said the police teams have launched a manhunt to nab the culprits who have been on run. He expressed hope that the accused would be arrested soon. It is evident to mention here that a 14-year-old girl was allegedly kidnapped and raped by three youths who alleged to teach her family a lesson for registering a complaint against them. The incident occurred on October 21 while the family had registered a complaint on Friday evening. The victim stated to the police that she had been going to her Karate class at Government Senior Secondary School, Sultanwind, in the early morning hours when the accused bundled her in car and took her to unknown residential building where they raped her one by one. The police has registered a case under Sections 376-G, 363, 366, 342 and 34 of the IPC at B-division police station.
	Gap in prices of onion prompts dist admn to take action Deputy Commissioner directs SDMs, District Mandi Officer to identify the reasons for price disparity Neeraj Bagga Tribune News Service Amritsar, October 26 A wide gap between the wholesale and retail prices of onion prompted the district administration to swing into action as Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat directed all SDMs and District Mandi Officer to check hoarding and to identify the gaps. Bhagat said the prices would be checked in the retail market and hoarders would be brought to book. Spiraling onion prices continue to burn holes in consumers’ pockets as its retail rate is hovering between Rs 80 to Rs 90 per Kg. The Amritsar Tribune team visited the wholesale vegetable and fruit market at Vallah and found that one Kg of onion was sold between Rs 30 to Rs 45, depending upon its varieties. A wholesale dealer Gaurav Behal said the wholesale prices were expected to fall further today as 12 huge wagons containing about 480 tonnes of onion from Afghanistan would be unloaded in the market. When he was quizzed about the big gap between whole sale and retail prices he said he could not comment over this. He said wholesalers work under the market committee’s watch and deposit fee of every transaction. Fruit and Vegetable Merchant Union’s former general secretary Charanjit Singh Batra said generally the stored onion was consumed between June and August as the supply of fresh crops stopped. However, this time the duration got prolonged which caused the prices to raise continuously. He informed that the arrival of fresh crop of onion from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh had been feeding the market for the past one month and the crop from Rajasthan mainly around Alwar was expected to reach in the first week of November. 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. Meanwhile, high onion prices bring tears to the common man as it is hitting the common man's kitchen budget. Surleen Mehra, a housewife, said among all the vegetables used regularly in the kitchen onion had become a precious commodity. Keeping in view its high price they think twice before using it. She added that 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 recalled that a few days ago onion could be bought at Rs 60 but now again it gained northward speed.
	SAI to set up maiden gatka academy in Punjab soon Neeraj Bagga Tribune News Service Amritsar, October 26 The Sports Authority of India (SAI) has adopted the International Fateh Academy (IFA) for setting up maiden gatka academy in Punjab at its campus. A team of the SAI is expected to visit the IFA campus on October 29 to conduct trials for selecting the players to be picked up and groomed in the newly incorporated game. The two-day trials will conclude on October 30. IFA Chairman Jagbir Singh lauded the union sports ministry’s move to promote the indigenous games under its fold. He said in all, 10 indigenous sports had been picked and the Sikh martial art gatka was one of these. About the rules to be followed governing the game he said he was not aware of it exactly as the SAI officials were to decide over it. However, he recalled that, the Punjab School Games, which had introduced gatka as a sport last year, had followed the rules framed by the gatka Federation of India (GFI). After the introduction of the sport by the Punjab School Games many schools constituted gatka teams. He said 42 players were playing gatka at the IFA. He informed that the SAI splashed advertisements in newspapers inviting the interested players to take part in the trials. Under the scheme, 20 players will be selected in the 8-14 age groups. The young players will be given a free kit, an annual stipend of Rs 3,000 and insurance cover. Besides, the SAI will appoint an expert coach at Rs 10,000 per month salary. The IFA has been told to hold five to six competitions annually. It may be mentioned that the GFI had standardised gatka rules and regulations to qualify it as a sport couple of years ago. The Punjab Olympic Association (POA) recognised the Punjab gatka Association (PGA). The Department of Education, Punjab, incorporated gatka in Punjab schools, colleges and universities’ sports calendars.
	Actor Amit Sadh in city for his next venture Tribune News Service Amritsar, October 26 “Kai Po Che” debutant, actor Amit Sadh is in the holy city shooting for his first solo lead film titled ‘Running Shaadi.com’. The actor, who stars alongside Tapsee Pannu, another newbie who was last seen in Chashme Baddoor, gave the first shot at the Golden Temple, performing seva inside the temple. A Shoojit Sircar project, the rom-com, which is being directed by Amit Roy, was shot in and around the city as a part of the initial shooting schedule. Shoojit will be trying the popular genre after giving hits like Vicky Donor and Madras Café. Excited about his Amritsar outing, the actor even tweeted about his experience at the Golden Temple and feels that it’s a promising start. The cast and crew later shot at Alpha One Mall late Thursday night and avoided any media interaction. One of the sources from the venue gave the reason for keeping the entire thing low profile. “The crew is on a very tight shooting schedule and since it’s too early to speak about the film,” he said. ‘Running Shadi.com’ is a romantic comedy about an online marriage bureau and a considerable amount of the film will be shot in Punjab. The actor will also be seen next in a political thriller ‘10 Janpath’.
	DC instructs workers to expedite development work Tribune News service Amritsar, October 26 In a meeting with the officials of district administration, Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat instructed them to expedite work on various ongoing development projects in city. He visited the site of underground plaza near the Golden Temple to assess the work done. He said in view of the problems faced by the pilgrims, the project should be completed in time. He said the project would be complete by the month of February next year. He said the government had decided that all shops and businesses near the Golden Temple would have sign and display boards of the same size and form. He also instructed the officials to get the encroachments on roads near the temple removed. The deputy commissioner also visited the Circular road and took stock of work done for the beautification of the stretch. He also visited the Gobindgarh fort and heritage village near GNDU.