Jalandhar, December 26
In the absence of any check by the district administration, around 325 booths behind the busy Rainik Bazaar area are running illegally without paying any rent/lease money or taxes for the past 10 years after getting status quo from the Punjab Haryana High Court in 2009.

As the land on which the booths are constructed belongs to the Punjab Waqf Board and the Central Government, the Municipal Corporation (MC) of Jalandhar has lost interest in the case due to which neither the district administration nor the Punjab Waqf Board has pursued the case.

Taking advantage of the confusion among the three authorities, the encroachers have now occupied the footpath and even the Old GT road. They are even running a full-fledged Sunday Market in Rainak bazaar area without paying any fee to the MC.

“Presently, we are not paying any fee to the corporation. We have got status quo on the land. Moreover, this land belongs to the Central Government and the Waqf Board. Why should we pay any fee to the corporation once they do not have any jurisdiction over the land? We were earlier paying challan money to them but after the realisation of the ownership of the land to the Central Government, they stopped taking that from us,” said Somnath, president, Sudama Booth Association.

In the year 1965, many people around this area were earning their livelihood by selling fruits and vegetables on wheel-carts at Amritsari Chowk and other congested areas of the city. In order to ensure the smooth flow of the traffic on the Old GT road, the government had allotted space measuring 5’x5’ each to the wheel-cart owners and some booths measuring 6’x6’ to Sudama Market in 1970. The corporation at that time also built a footpath of 7’ width between the market and the Old GT road. In 1988, a wall was also constructed on the footpath to restrain the people from encroaching the footpath and the GT road.

However, with time, these people only started encroaching the footpath and even the road also. The wall was also demolished during the process. Meanwhile, when a city based activist filed a civil writ petition in the High Court in 2010, the corporation, without looking into the ownership record of the land, sent notice under section 246-A to all the encroachers including the booth owners of the Sudama market. The occupants of Sudama Market, taking advantage of the land ownership to the Central Government and the Punjab Waqf Board, refused to vacate the land to the corporation and managed to get status quo status in the case. After that, neither the corporation, nor the district administration took interest in the case.

“Following this, some land mafia got active in the area and took possession of many booths inside Sudama Market by paying a meagre amount to the owners. If you check, around 80 per cent of the people running the booths presently are not the original allotees but the ones who bought them only a few years ago. They even have water and electricity connections inside the booths. Many of them have even shifted the face of their booths towards the old GT road side by pulling the shutters on the footpath,” revealed Sushil Sharma, the activist who filed the case against Sudama Market in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. He also revealed that they were slowly but consistently moving ahead every moment to occupy more space and have even went ahead till the Company Bagh Chowk.

“This is illegal. A status quo does not give them the right to run their business on government land without paying any fee to the government. Now since the matter has been brought to me, I will soon look into this,” said Varun Roojam, Deputy Commissioner, Jalandhar.

Till the administration takes time to check and verify the facts, the occupants of the Sudama market are gradually moving ahead every year to encroach upon the land inch by inch around Jyoti Chowk, shoddily choking the heart of the city and creating a lot of traffic chaos for the commuters and the trauma patients on their way to the Civil Hospital.

Jalandhar, December 26
The resumed agitation by city traders on the call given by the Jalandhar Industrial and Traders Joint Action Committee (JAC) entered its second week today, as shopkeepers of Avtar Nagar and Ashok Nagar markets observed a half-day strike against the commercial property tax on Thursday.

Shopkeepers of the markets, led by their representatives trader and Congress councillor Gurwinder Singh Bunty, Harjinder Singh, Harjit Singh and Rahul Grover, also sat on a dharna for one hour from 11 am to 12 noon in the market in support of traders’ demand of reducing the property tax on all commercial buildings and charging it at par with industrial buildings.

Addressing the dharna, the representatives of JAC Ravindra Dhir, Gursharan Singh and Raj Kumar Sharma expressed surprise that none of the four MLAs of the city, belonging to the ruling Akali-BJP alliance, had come forward to listen to the protesting traders whose agitation entered its 14th day today.

The JAC representatives threatened that if their demand of reducing property tax on commercial buildings and bringing it at par with that on industrial buildings was not met soon, they would start gheraoing the houses of the MLAs.

Speaking on the occasion, Congress councillor Gurwinder Singh Bunty flayed the Parkash Singh Badal-led Akali-BJP government for imposing "too high" property tax on commercial buildings and for levying new taxes every other day on urbanites.

Meanwhile, representatives of wholesale paper merchants Ashwani Mahajan and Deepak Joshi said the traders of Mai Hiran Gate and Old Railway Road would observe strike from 9 am to 12 noon on Friday.

Jalandhar, December 26
With as many as 1.2 lakh claimants of the revised "atta-dal" scheme in Jalandhar, the administration is finding it hard to meet the deadline for the verification of claims by December 30.

As per the prescribed schedule, the SDMs are to put up the lists of eligible beneficiaries by December 31.

There are 40,534 claimants for the scheme just within the MC limits. The administration has appointed staff of schools, JEs and SDOs of various departments and inspectors of the Municipal Corporation (MC) on the job to locate the houses of applicants and verify low income and other claims.

Various eligibility factors include those with annual income less than Rs 60,000, landless farm labourers, small and marginal farmers with 2.5 acre landholding and those not owing a house or having kutcha house. Those owning a four-wheeler or AC or a house in more than 100 sq yard area or a flat are ineligible for claim as per the National Food Security Act.

Since all the aspects can be verified only upon visit, SDM Jalandhar-1 has to ensure that as many as 64,504 houses are visited by the government staff, including MC inspectors, in city areas and school principals in village areas falling in the sub-division. Further, the patwaris have to verify the small or nil landholding claims. “The whole process cannot be certainly accomplished even in 15 days. Verification in city is not that easy as locating houses is itself an issue,” said SDM-1 Iqbal Singh Sandhu.

Deputy Commissioner Varun Roojam said he was trying to get the work expedited by giving more staff. “Let’s see, how the response remains,” he said.

Jalandhar, December 26
Money changers seem to be the target of some gangs operating in the periphery of the city for the past two days.

While two unidentified bikers had robbed a money changer Kishan Lal of Gobind Forex of Rs 32 lakh at Nakodar late last evening, another similar incident took place at Kala Sanghian this evening.

Three bike-borne masked youths came at Nanak Money Exchange shop of Simarpreet Singh at Kala Sanghian at 4.15 pm.

While one of them kept the bike on, the other two went inside the shop, overpowered him at gunpoint and looted Rs 3.5 lakh from the chest of his counter.

The trio fled soon after. The policemen at the Kala Sanghian police post have registered a case against unidentified persons.

The registration number of the bike also could not be noted down, said the victim, who is a resident of Garden Colony in Jalandhar.

Various police teams have been despatched to surrounding areas to nab the culprits.

Jalandhar, December 26
Jalandhar and its surrounding areas shivered at -1.2 degree Celsius today.

Despite the city experiencing sun-shine for last three days after several days of foggy weather, the minimum temperature here was recorded below freezing point on Thursday.

According to the meteorological department, the minimum temperature in Jalandhar and surrounding areas was -1.2 degree Celsius, whereas the maximum temperature was recorded as 18.9 degrees Celsius.

According to the forecast, cold wave will continue with occasional fog in the morning in the city and adjoining areas.

Jalandhar, December 26
The decade’s worst slowdown has put brakes on the registration of new vehicles with the District Transport Office this year.

While last year, 69,558 new two-wheelers and cars were registered with the department, there have been nearly 4,000 less registrations this year with the number standing at 65,503.

Year 2013 has also not seen any jump in the sale of commercial vehicles. If there were 2,949 goods carrying vehicles registered from March 2012 (there is no data available for the first two months) to December 2012, the new commercial vehicles registered this year stands at 3,253. If we take the monthly average, the sales in this category too 
have fallen from 293 to 271 each month.

Corresponding with the sales of vehicles, there has been a dip in the number of licences issued this year by the department. While 93,443 fresh and renewed driving licences were issued last year, comparison to 88,648 licences issued so far.

The trend has been quite unusual this year as there has been a constant increase in the sales of vehicles each year. There were nearly 37,000 vehicles registered in 2009, 50,000 in 2010, indicating a significant annual spillover of vehicles on city roads each year.

Pankaj Sharma, working as manager at Volkswagen showroom, said the sales had been down by 35 per cent this year. “There has been a general slump in the market. People are purchasing low budget cars. Since our cars fall in higher range, we are more affected,” he said.

Gurinder Pal Singh, a Honda dealer, said the cars segment was more hit than the scooter and bike market due to the economic slowdown. “Even though our sales have gone up by 8 per cent this year, as compared to previous year, the increase was more pronounced last year when the sales were up by 15 per cent as compared to 2011,” he said.

Jalandhar, December 26
Thieves struck at two houses in the Rasta Mohalla locality last night and decamped with cash, jewellery and other valuables.

They also targeted two more houses, but their attempt remained unsuccessful.

The owner of a house, Harbans Singh, was sleeping on the first floor of his house as thieves took away his valuables from the almirahs lying in rooms on the ground floor. He said when he got up and came down, he saw the latch of s door broken from outside.

As he went in, he was in for a shock as his entire belongings were lying scattered. He said his Rs 1 lakh, four gold bangles and two diamond rings had been stolen.

Another resident Pawan Kumar, too, has lodged a complaint, saying his Rs 25,000 had been stolen. Policemen from Division Number 3 have registered a case and are investigating the matter.

Jalandhar, December 26
Little Blossoms School organised its annual cultural event in the form of a Sound and Light show and a prize distribution ceremony at its South City branch. Sunil Jyoti, Mayor of Jalandhar, was the chief guest. He presented awards of excellence to students along with Sanjeev Murria, Ruhani Kohli and Vandana

Murria. The three hour event depicted the colorful culture of Korea, tricks of Russian circus, Arabian belly dance, Egyptian pyramids, African natives, American hiphop, to awaz do hum ek hai depicting the theme with the power of music and dance. The school report was read by Ribhav, Preksha, Riya and Aditya. Children were given prizes for their meritorious achievements in academics, co-curricular and sports competitions.

Jalandhar, December 26
Verka milk may become costlier as its dealers have sought at least 5 per cent increase in their commission from the Verka authorities.

Verka Milk Bar Welfare Association representatives Ashok Mahajan and Raj Chhabra demanded that their existing 2.7 per cent commission should be increased to 5 per cent.