Jalandhar, January 29
Even though there are three Deputy Controllers (Finance and Auditing) posted with the local Municipal Corporation (MC), the accounts department here has failed to take up the matter pertaining to the cheque-bounce cases worth several lakhs taking place in the house tax department each year.

A reply to an RTI application on the matter filed by an activist Kailash Thukral has revealed that cheques worth Rs 88 lakh advanced as House Tax payments by residents here were dishonoured in the last financial year (2012-13), but no legal action was taken by the staff against any of the defaulters under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act.

A resident of Rasta Mohalla here, Thukral, through his application filed on October 7, had sought information for the past three years, but he has, as of now, got the details only for a year. He said he was given a reply on November 27 with the office seeking 15 more days to provide the pending information, but it was still to come.

In reply to the query on what action was being taken in such cases, Assistant Public Information Officer-cum-superintendent House Tax has written that the inspectors concerned had been recovering the dues from such defaulters in cash. At this, the activist had written to the Joint Commissioner-cum-Public Information Officer, saying such a working of the accounts and house tax department could lead to the misappropriation of funds.

Thukral has also managed to get the copies of the register of dishonoured cheques from the MC, which show that there are some defaulters who were to pay amounts as high as Rs 2 lakh, but the amount could not be received owing to insufficient funds in the bank.

A close perusal of some entries reveals that officials have mentioned in writing that cash of full or half amount was received, but most of such entries were without such signatures.

DCFA YP Anand said he was not aware of such a case. He refused to comment on a question as to why no legal action had been taken against the defaulters. “It is for the information officers who have replied to such queries to respond on the matter,” he said.

Jalandhar, January 29
Three showrooms of branded readymade garments were gutted in the posh Model Town Market in the wee hours here today.

Two showrooms, One Stop Shop and US Polo, were completely destroyed, while another adjoining shop of Unikids got partially damaged. It took the fire officials seven hours to douse the flames.

Fire Officer Rajinder Sharma said a phone call in this regard was received at 12.25 am and the teams, dispatched with six fire extinguishers, returned at 7.30 am. He said the cause of the fire seemed to be a short circuit.

Former MLA and Congress leader Jagbir Brar said the shopkeepers were upset that the fire-tender came half an hour after the call. Also it was not equipped with adequate water and had low pressure in the hoses to handle the situation, as the entire complex was burning. "The department does not even have hydraulic ladders to make it to the upper floors quickly. The government is already levying 2 per cent tax as fire cess and charging 10 per cent from commercial buildings. Where is it all going? The showroom owners need to get timely help if they have paid all the dues to the government," he said.

Jalandhar, January 29
In a major decision, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked the Municipal Corporation (MC) Jalandhar to regularise as many as 525 encroachments within a period of three months and submit a compliance report before May 2.

Taking a decision on the matter on a petition filed by the Citizen Welfare Society way back in 1998, Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul has said that the regularisation should be done via a proper sanction and on a payment of the requisite amount to the authorities. It has also asked the MC officials to remove any construction which it considers to be unauthorised.

Coming heavily against the MC officials, the court has specified, “Since the scope of the petition was enlarged beyond Bhargo Camp, the unauthorised constructions existing in the city of Jalandhar as encroachments would also be removed within this period of three months. The status report should be filed showing compliance with a chart annexed of all detected unauthorised constructions taking place and action taken in this behalf along with photographs of the site. The first of such report should be filed at least three days prior to the next date of hearing on May 2.”

An affidavit placed on record in the court by the MC Commissioner delves into the history of the area. “This settlement came into being in the post-1947 situation and was initially named as Bhargav Camp for the refugees in the name of the then Chief Minister Dr Gopi Chand Bhargav. The migrants from West Pakistan were given the benefit of allotment of barracks of two marlas of land and common toilet facilities per refugee family. There was a paucity of space which did not make it possible for the construction of bathrooms and toilets. The refugees were stated to be largely labourers and earning their livelihood by plying bullock carts, small dairies, sheep/goat keeping, pottery etc.”

It further reads, “A committee consisting of officials of the Municipal Corporation as well as the Revenue Department was constituted to visit the area and submit its recommendations as regard the regularisation of encroachments based on the parameters of availability of front road, width of road, hindrance to traffic, building line regular or not, property situated on street with an open end or not, conveyance or registration deed if any, pendency of application for the allotment of site with the DC, construction on MC toilets or space causing hindrance to approach toilets.”

Kapurthala, January 29
An overdose of drugs might have caused the death of undertrial Bunty, said the police.

Bharat Masih, SHO, Kapurthala city, said Bunty was addicted to drugs and even in the preliminary investigation of the police, it was found that the accused had taken an overdose of drugs, which reportedly caused his death.

The police had sent a viscera sample to a chemical laboratory in Kharar and its final report would actually clear the cause of the death.

The police had initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the Cr PC, the SHO said. If laboratory report signals any foul play, the police investigation would proceed accordingly.

The postmortem was conducted today at Jalandhar Civil Hospital.

Jalandhar, January 29
A woman died under mysterious circumstances at a private hospital here today. She is suspected to have consumed some poisonous substance following a brawl with her husband and in-laws at their residence in Tagore Nagar.

The deceased was identified as Rajni.

The police said, acting on the allegations of the woman's kin, her husband Gaurav, mother-in-law Devki and sister-in-law Goldy were booked on the charges of abetment to suicide, adding that Devki was nabbed, while raids were being conducted to nab the remaining accused.

The woman's kin alleged that her husband and in-laws had beaten her up, following which she reportedly consumed some poisonous substance. She was rushed to a private hospital where she died.

The poice said postmortem and viscera reports would clear if she had consumed any poisonous substance.

A case under Section 306 of the IPC had been registered.

Jalandhar, January 29
The State Excise Department has imposed a penalty of Rs 3 crore (Rs 1 crore for tax evasion and Rs 2 crore on other counts) on KK Enterprises for evading tax.

Major Amit Sarin, Excise and Taxation Officer, said KK Enterprises had shown an annual turnover of Rs 25 crore for 2012-13 and Rs 11.52 crore in six months. In all, the owner had evaded a tax of Rs 1.1 crore. He had purchased plastic scrap in this particulars assessment year, which is 2012-13. He has sold items like pipe-fitting, CI casting and iron hand tools to different dealers in Jalandhar and Ludhiana. "He is a trader not a manufacturer. When a trader is buying plastic stuff, how can he sell pipe-fitting and hand tools of iron?" asked Sarin.

"He was absolutely a bogus dealer. When I scrutinised his premises on January 23, I found there was no godown or store. He was running his business from a small shop. What he was doing was just issuing bills and no stock or commodities were being sold by him. The physical movement of goods never took place," he said, adding that his tax identification number (TIN) had been cancelled.

Jalandhar, January 29
Even as the district administration has missed the deadline of January 26 to get tobacco-free status, confirmed sources at the PGIMER said the district had already been approved for such status after a team from the institute recently visited the city and inspected around 350 places to check the compliance percentage under Section 4 of the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act-2003 (COTPA Act).

The district administration had earlier planned to invoke Section 4 of the COTPA Act which would prohibit smoking at public places. But due to delay by the administration in inviting the PGIMER team to inspect and check the compliance parameters of the act, it gave the deadline a near miss on the Republic Day. However, it finally passed the compliance test specified by the PGIMER team and may be declared as a tobacco-free district on Wednesday.

“We had received the invitation to inspect the district on January 13. We were in Jalandhar from January 15 to 21 and visited various places. We will announce the report on Wednesday,” said Dr Sonu Goyal, Associate Professor and member of the inspecting team.

The team checked five major compliance parameters. “We inspected the installation of the signages, smoking at public places, presence of cigarette and bidi butts, ashtrays in hotels and indirect evidences like the presence of tobacco smell and availability of matchboxes in specific areas,” said Dr Goyal.

As the Municipal Corporation has auctioned all the hoardings since 2001, it was left with no choice but to put banners at various places in the city to make people aware. Most of them have been put inside government buildings where maximum footfall is recorded. At least 5 to 10 banners are installed inside the DC office only to make maximum people aware about the plan. The administration, in violation of the Public Property Defacement Act, has also pasted posters of ‘tobacco-free zone’ under the BMC flyover.

“We have tried our best to make people aware about the implementation of the COTPA Act with whatever means available to us. We are hopeful to pass the litmus test and will try to maintain the status henceforth,” said Varun Roojam, Deputy Commissioner, Jalandhar.

Though, the administration has made efforts to get the tobacco-free status, some shops can still be seen selling tobacco products in front of various schools and colleges.

Jalandhar, January 29
Taking precautionary measures to save crops from yellow rust, a killer fungus, which has been affecting the wheat crop in the neighbouring districts, the Agriculture Department has started providing propiconazol, a fungicide, to farmers at 50 per cent subsidy, at its offices.

The department has pressed its experts to provide fungicides even on holidays, at every block level office. An awareness drive has also been launched to educate farmers about its symptoms and syndromes.

Talking to The Tribune, chief agriculture officer, Jalandhar, Swatantra Kumar Aeri, said efforts were being made to protect crops from any damage due to yellow rust, which normally grew in mountainous areas because of low temperature.

“Growing of yellow dots at the base of the plant is the symptom of the disease. When this dot bursts, it spreads turmeric coloured powder on earth, which infects the plant with fungus,” Aeri said.

The heavy downpour that lashed this part of the region has not only brought cheers but also fear of increased chances of spreading this disease.

The disease spreads in moist weather after rain and winds carry it to other fields. The rains have worried the farmers of Kandi belt that falls in Ropar, Nawanshahr and Hoshairpur districts, where the disease has attacked the wheat crop extensively.

The affected fields of the Kandi belt may spread the disease to its immediate neighbouring areas of Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Mohali. The farmers and the agriculture officers had been put on alert to protect the wheat crop from this disease, he claimed.

Agriculture development officer Naresh Kumar Gulati said 10 per cent of the total area of the state under the wheat crop was in these districts.

The carriers of this pathogen are air, water, animals and even human beings. He said it grew in temperature less than 24 degree Celsius and travelled with whatever came in close contact with it. He said winds accompanied by rain worked as one of the major carriers of this fungus.

He, however, claimed increased temperature eradicate the disease automatically.

Jalandhar January 29
Drug lord Jagdish Bhola today appeared in a local court through video-conferencing in connection with the case of recovery of heroin by Lambra police last year.

Chief, CIA, Angrej Singh, said Bhola was lodged in the Nabha jail and he appeared in the court of Additional Sessions Judge HS Lekhi. The judge fixed the next hearing on February 5.

It must be mentioned here that the Jalandhar rural police had also brought Bhola on production warrant last week. They didn’t let Bhola face the media. Even during his hearing in the court then, the police managed to dodge the media persons by making a back door entry.

The police sources said the rural police had requested Bhola’s hearing through video-conferencing just to keep him away from the media as Bhola had recently named Cabinet Minister Bikram Singh Majithia for running a drug nexus in Punjab.

Jalandhar, January 29
More than 500 youths from across the state, under the Naujawan Bharat Sabha (NBS) and other labour groups, gheraoed the tehsil office for three hours here today. They said if the state government did not order a CBI probe into the Bhola drug racket, then they would intensify their stir.

The union activists demanded the dismissal of Bikram Singh Majithia, Sarwan Singh Phillaur, Bonny Ajnala and Veer Singh Lopoke from their respective cabinet and other posts. They also demanded their immediate arrest.

They asked for the publication of the report by former DGP Shashikant on drugs and strict action against the police-politician-smuggler nexus.

The leaders said they would be forced to protest against the panchayat of Fatehjalal village if it did not act to get the liquor vends removed from near the gurdwara and the government school.

Jalandhar, January 29
A two-day science exhibition and quiz contest was organised by the DAV College here today. It was inaugurated by Divisional Commissioner, Jalandhar, R Venketrattnam. As many as 400 students from 15 colleges and 22 schools participated in the model presentation, poster-making and quiz contest.

Principal Dr BB Sharma welcomed the chief guest. Convener of the exhibition, Dr Hemant Sharma, said scientific learning always came from raising queries. Co-ordinator for the exhibition, Prof TD Siani, said around 160 models and 135 posters representing different branches of science were displayed. A quiz contest for the junior category (class XI and XII) was conducted by Prof Sharanjit Kaur Sandhu of the physics department.

Director (popularisation of science), Punjab State Council of Science and Technology, Chandigarh, Dr Neelam Gulati Sharma, will be the chief guest for the valedictory and prize distribution function tomorrow.

Farewell function

Students of Class IX of Delhi Public School, Jalandhar, organised ‘Adios Amigos’, a good-bye programme for students passing out of Class XII. Many songs, dance performances and games were organised at the event. The song ‘Hum rahen ya na rahen hum’ and video clips showing messages of teachers for students made the entire gathering emotional.

Rangli Dupahar

To promote Punjabi culture, values and awareness about social evils, a musical event ‘Rangli Dupahar’ was organised at the St Soldier College, Basti Danishmandan. Students participated in folk-song, skit, solo and group dances, qawwali, shabad gayan, giddha and bhangra competitions. They tried to promote Punjabi culture through jugni, sammi, charkha and dhola. They performed skits on the themes ‘Maapiyan da Bhavikh’, ‘Chiri di Kahani’ and ‘Dahej ek Lahnat’. Gurkirpal and Neha were declared best bhangra and giddha performers.

Ramp walk

To promote self-expression, confidence and hidden talent, DIPS UE-1 organised the most-awaited activity ‘Fall Winter Collection Ramp Walk’ for their children. All students from pre-nursery to prep classes participated in it. They showed their confidence, innovative and creative ideas while walking on the ramp.

Children attired themselves in different dresses of their favourite cartoon characters, fairies and Army officer. They effectively used props and all of them spoke confidently about the attire and the character they were depicting. The venue was artistically decorated by the teachers for the little Dipsians. Certificates were given to the deserving students.

Phagwara, January 29
A youth identified as Surinder Kumar of Chachoki Colony reportedly committed suicide by hanging himself with the ceiling fan in his house today.

The deceased was found hanging by his wife when she came home. The police have registered a case and sent the dead body for post-mortem examination to the civil hospital.