R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Hoshiarpur
I-Tax Service Centre opened: Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairperson Sudha Sharma inaugurated the Ayakar Sewa Kendra (Income Tax Service Centre) here. “The centre symbolises a paradigm shift in the working of the Income Tax (I-T) Department,” she said. Sharma said the I-Tax Department had nine officers posted Singapore, the US, the UAE, France and other countries to take care of the tax matters ad check evasion. “The Department has compiled a data on undeclared investment of people and sent them notices to explain the reason. Following this, most of them filed amended tax returns and the Department received Rs 1,700 crore,” Sharma said.

Sangrur
Brick kiln workers hold protest march: Brick kiln workers took out a protest march through the city and raised slogans in support of their demands. They were seeking hike in their wages, implementation of labour laws pertaining to brick kilns in letter and spirit, control over black marketing of sand and formation of construction workers’ welfare board. They also held a rally at the district administrative complex here and submitted a memorandum of demands to the district administration. They said if their demands were not accepted a state-level rally would be held on February 24 in Mansa.

Farmers begin dharna outside DSP’s office: A large number of farmers, under the banner of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan), began an indefinite dharna in front of the office of the Dirba Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) in Sular Gharat village. They demanded that a case be registered against an arhtiya of Dirba, alleging that he was responsible for the death of a farmer from Kamper village (Dirba), Gurmail Singh. Dirba DSP Sewa Singh said the deceased farmer had taken money from the arhtiya and the arhtiya had been seeking his money back. The farmers were now putting a pressure on the police to register a case against the arhtiya, he added.

CHANDIGARH

Chandigarh
ALS sets up local centre: IAS coaching faculty Alternate Learning System (ALS) has tied up with ETEN IAS to set up its centre in Chandigarh for coaching aspirants of civil services. ETEN is a part of the Pearson group and has been providing coaching through VSAT technology for the past 11 years. Asim Gupta, business head, ALS, said the Chandigarh centre would start a six-month course from January-end.

2 convicted:Two persons were convicted under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act by the local court for possessing “charas” weighing 46.5 kg. The convicts were identified as Pawan Kumar Bari, who hails from Rajasthan, and Hans Raj alias Ashu, a resident of Delhi. The quantum would be pronounced tomorrow.

Cricket tourney from Jan 28: The Singh Cricket Academy will conduct the First Champion League Cricket Tournament at the cricket grounds, Sector 56, here. The First Champion League Cricket Tournament will be held from January 28 to 31.  Interested teams are advised to to confirm their entries with Sukhwinder (9646303606) or Nirpaksh Rana (9855627919).

JAMMU & KASHMIR

Jammu
Wani for CBI probe: Minister for Roads and Buildings Abdul Majid Wani today demanded a CBI probe in all such cases wherein J&K students studying in various parts of the country were found dead outside the state. The minister was referring to a young boy, Khalid Mintoo, son of Riyaz Mintoo from Doda, who was found dead under suspicious circumstances in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, where he was pursuing an engineering course.