Amritsar, February 25
The imposition of various taxes, mandatory submission of PAN for purchasing property over Rs 5 lakh, high registry charges, high interest on house loans, costly construction material and other factors are ailing the real estate market in the city.

The impact can be gauged from the number of registries being done at the local revenue office. Sources in the Revenue Department said the daily rate of registries had come down considerably. There used to be the registration of about 250 properties in Amritsar I and Amritsar II sections of the department every day before July last.

The sources say the income of the department from the registration of has decreased from over Rs 1 crore to around Rs 5 lakh per day. However, the real estate players say that the ban on the registration of land deeds of the properties in the illegal colonies on July 11, 2013 changed the entire scenario.

Earlier, the government had given a one-time opportunity to colonisers to get their offences compounded and plot holders to improve civic amenities in the illegal colonies by depositing development fee. Under the Punjab Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2013, the policy would remain in force from April 1 to March 31, 2014. Only the unapproved colonies or buildings constructed before April 1 would be considered under this policy.

"After the implementation of the policy, it has come to light that investors were investing heavily in illegal colonies, which consolidated the speculative trend, resulting in an hike in land prices. In this scenario, the real buyers managed to own a piece of land only after it passed through many buyers," said Surjit Singh, a resident of Sultanwind Road.

In the past, there used to be a rush of people at the revenue office for the registration of properties but these days, the office wears a deserted look. Officials said the situation had been the same since the new policy came into force.

Naresh Kumar, a deed writer, said their business was hit adversely by the policy and it would remain so if the policy remained the same. He said due to the policy it had come to light that 90 per cent of the transactions were taking place in unapproved areas.

He said 400 deed writers in the city had witnessed a considerable drop in their business. He said about two to four workers were attached to every deed writer but now they would have to decrease their staff in absence of inadequate work.

Harpinder Singh Walia, a property dealer, said many external and internal factors impact the price of land. Apart from the liquidity crunch, the deduction of one per cent TDS on transactions over Rs 50 lakh, high registry charges, property tax had an adverse effect on the realty sector, making the investors as well as end users reluctant to finalise any deal.

The developers, however, are in no mood to reduce their profits in view of increasing construction cost. Amritsar Dealers' and Colonisers' Association president Surinder Vashisht said the local real estate market continued to be in doldrums. He said there was no sign of decline in the prices as investors were holding on to their investments.

Fact file The imposition of various taxes, mandatory submission of PAN for purchasing property over Rs 5 lakh, high registry charges, high interest on house loans, costly construction material ail the real estate market. However, the real estate players say that the ban on the registration of land deeds of the properties in the illegal colonies on July 11, 2013 changed the entire scenario.

Amritsar, February 25
The demand for power connections is on the rise. Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) data shows that there were 12,58, 200 connections in the border region comprising Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur and Pathankot by March 31, 2013.

At the conclusion of third quarter of this fiscal in December 2013, 39,560 new connections were added, which took the number to 12,97,760. PSPCL spokesperson Such Lal said the power demand in the region was increasing from10 to 12 per cent annually. He added that among all these districts, Amritsar was the biggest consumer.

The demand for power connections has been increasing in the residential areas of the border district for various reasons such as the collapse of the joint family system and setting up of new private colonies.

Sanjay Joshi, manager of a real estate company said apart from the spurt in the construction of residential units, people have become habitual to a comfortable way of living and were spending more on electronic gadgets. Besides, he felt the house design and construction must be in conformity with the immediate weather.

“For example, traditionally there is a shared wall culture in the city, which does not allow the air to circulate properly. Since summer predominates all other seasons in the region, it is necessary to raise houses with adequate cross circulation to minimise the dependence on electronic gadget,” he said.

A real estate agent, Harpinder Singh Walia, said a number of residential localities were coming up on the Ajnala road, Loharka road and the Fatehgarh Churriyan road were responsible for the increase in demand.

Amritsar, February 25
Despite claims of the government of providing treatment facilities to cancer patients, medicines are running out of stock at the Jan Aushadhi store of the Jallianwala Bagh Martyrs Memorial Civil Hospital for the last eight months. The store provides medicines to cancer patients at affordable prices.

Sources at the hospital said the firm responsible for providing medicines to the Jan Aushahdi store was asking for a bigger order. However, there is not need for placing a bigger order.

Meanwhile, patients are in touch with the store so that they could get the medicines whenever the new stock arrives. The medicines for cancer patients are unavailable at the store for the past eight months.

A cancer patient said, "The poor cannot afford costly medicines. It would be better if these are provided at government pharmacies at cheaper rates." The state government had earlier initiated a scheme to provide a monetary help of Rs 1.5 lakh to cancer patient. The Health Department has selected many government and private hospitals where cancer patients can avail of the scheme. Earlier, the government had announced to provide medicines at lower rates to cancer patients. "The authorities should see if the schemes are being implemented properly at the grassroots level," said another patient.

Civil Surgeon Dr Usha Bansal said she would look into the matter and ensure that the medicines were available at the Jan Aushadhi store. She said if the medicines were found unavailable, these would be provided at the earliest.

Amritsar, February 25
In an unsuccessful bid, an unidentified person tried to break open an ATM of Punjab National Bank at Gumtala on Ajnala Road today. Though there was no loss of cash from the ATM, the incident has once again brought forth the issue of inadequate security arrangements made by the nationalised banks at ATMs.

Earlier, on January 23, some miscreants had decamped with Rs 9.18 lakhs after uprooting the ATM at the Jandiala Guru branch of the bank. The police have failed to make any breakthrough in the case so far.

Arvind Gupta, manager of the bank, said he had received a call from sweeper Renu who told him that some unknown persons had tried to break open the ATM. He said he went to the bank and found that the cash was not stolen as the miscreant failed to open the machine. The CCTV footage revealed that the accused visited the ATM at around 5.45 am.

The Cantonment police have registered a case under Sections 457, 380, 511 and 427 of the IPC. No arrest has been made so far.

Notably, the police have repeatedly instructed the banks to depute security personnel at ATMs. Though the police claim that they have stepped up patrolling, the repeated instances have raised doubts over it.

Amritsar, February 25
A youth lost his life while two migrants were critically injured during a road mishap on the Amritsar-Attari bypass road last night. Ashi Aneja (22), a resident of Green Avenue, died on the spot. The injured, Mithun and Udaybir, residents of Dashmesh Nagar, Jora Phatak, sustained grievous injuries. They were rushed to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital. There condition is stated to be serious.

According to information, Ashi in his Audi car (PB-02-AP-0016) was going towards the Batala road bypass from the Majitha road bypass when he hit Mithun and Udaybir near a private hospital. His car went out of control, turned turtle and hit the road divider. He died on the spot.

The other victims were on their bicycle and were returning home from work. 

Amritsar, February 25
Teachers of all nine government-aided colleges in the district abstained from work to protest the non-release of salaries for the past nine months.

Aided colleges get 95 per cent grant-in-aid from the state government but it has not been released for the past three quarters. These colleges impart education to 80 per cent of the undergraduate and postgraduate students in the the district.

HS Walia, Punjab and Chandigarh Colleges Teachers Union (PCCTU), state executive member, said they had received the last salary in November for the first quarter from March to May 2013.

The government annually releases a grant of about Rs 172 crore to pay wages to 1,450 teachers and 1,500 non-teaching staff for aided colleges in the state that are affiliated to one of the three following universities: Panjab University, Punjabi University and Guru Nanak Dev University.

He said even though the state government had neither released the development grant nor the infrastructure grant to these colleges, it was finding difficult to release the salaries of the staff. He alleged that the indifferent attitude of the government had driven majority of these colleges to the brink of closure. It is learnt that many colleges have taken advances from banks to pay the salaries of its employees. 

Amritsar, February 25
The Chheharta police have booked a notorious gangster along with eight others on the charge of forcibly occupying a house belonging to a school principal. Sukhwinder Singh, a resident of New Model Town now residing at Kotli Naseer Khan village, stated to the police that he was the Principal of Government Senior Secondary School, Jabowal village, and had a marital dispute with his wife Narinder Wali.

He had gone to Chandigarh regarding the case when the the accused entered the house. He said the accused told him that Jagtar Boxer, a notorious gangster, had bought the house from Narinder Wali and would not allow him to enter it.

The chheharta police have registered a case under Sections 454, 380, 506 of the IPC. Those who have been booked in the case are Narinder Wali, Raj Rano of Patiala, Jagtar Boxer, Rajesh Kumar, Surinder Singh, Sonu, Laadi, Suraj and Preet Gill. 

Amritsar, February 25
Gurmeet Singh, a retired employee of PowerCom, has raised an alarm over the non-payment of interest on advance consumption deposit (ACD) to consumers by Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL).

He raised the issue by sending a communiqué to the Punjab State Regulatory Commission. The annual revenue report of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (ARR) has revealed that it would have a liability of over Rs 1,300 crore as interest on the advance consumption deposit (ACD) towards consumers in 2014 -15.

The advance consumption deposit is paid by the consumers at the time of getting connections. As per the Electricity Act, 2003, the Punjab government bifurcated the PSEB into PSPCL (distribution and generation) and PSTCL (transmission) on April 16, 2010. Before this, the state government formed the Supply Code, 2007.

Besides, PSPCL recovered the ACD from consumers using above 100 kw in 2010 and the consumers who used between 20 kw and 100 kw from 2013 to 2014. During this time, it also recovered the ACD from domestic and commercial consumers.

“The ADC stood at about Rs 1,501 crore on April 16, 2010 and PSPCL paid Rs 88.31 crore as interest for 2010-11 to consumers," he said. He added that the calculations suggested that Rs 88.31 was the interest on Rs 654.15 crore and the interest on Rs 847.17 remained unpaid out of a total of Rs 1,501 crore.

Clause 15 of the Supply Code says that PSPCL would take security from the consumers. However, its section 17.4 also made it clear that in case of its failure to pay 12.25 per cent interest on the ACD to consumers, it would have to pay the double of the interest to consumers.

There will be a burden of about Rs 1,300 crore on PSPCL in the next fiscal. As per the Supply Code, the ACD is being recovered from consumers for extension of load, change of name, change of tariff and category, power theft, regularisation of load under various schemes of VDS and others.

Amritsar, February 25
A youth snatched Rs 41,000 from Lovedeep Singh, a resident of Akash Avenue, Fatehgarh Churian road, when he came out after withdrawing money from an ATM.

However, the snatcher was nabbed by the people as Lovedeep raised an alarm. The accused has been identified as Ranjodh Singh, a resident of Batala.

Lovedeep told the police that as he came out after withdrawing money from the ATM, the accused snatched it. — TNS

Amritsar, February 25
Books play an important role in enhancing the intelligence quotient of man and replace the darkness in human mind with enlightenment. These thoughts were expressed by Punjab Cabinet Minister Anil Joshi after inaugurating the RMSA book fair, hosted at Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Mall Road.

Mayor Bakhshi Ram Arora said books were not used to store history but to help create history.

Deputy District Education Officer (Secondary) Satish Kumar said thye book fair had been organised to instill the habit of reading among the youth and to encourage book culture among the youngsters as books play a vital role in inculcating moral values in human minds.

Following the instructions of the Director General School Education, as many as 51 schools were given a grant of Rs 2,200 each for the libraries. The school heads and students availed of this golden opportunity to select the books of their choice.

Principal of the host school Mandeep Kaur said every year, around 16,500 publishers publish more than 80,000 books in 34 different languages.

Amritsar, February 25
Residents heaved a sigh of relief as the LPG dealers in the city did not go on strike today. The leaders of the LPG Distributors Federation said they had received a message from the All-India LPG Distributors Federation that an appointment for a meeting with the representatives of the oil companies and the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Gas had been taken to review the Marketing Discipline Guidelines-2014.

General secretary of the federation Rajesh Madaan said, “As of now, we have postponed the strike and will wait for what the All-India LPG Distributors Federation (AILDF) and the Federation of LPG Distributors of India (FLDI) decide.”

Madaan said the oil companies were blaming the LPG dealers for faults of their own.

Amritsar, February 25
A two-day national seminar on “Environmental Ethics and Perspectives from the World Religion” was inaugurated at Guru Nanak Dev University, here today.

The seminar is being organised by the Department of Guru Nanak Studies of the university in association with the UGC. As many as 40 papers would be presented during the seminar.

In his presiding lecture, noted environmentalist and member, Punjab Pollution Board Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal laid stress on the importance of healthy environment for a healthy man. He said the relation of man with nature was well depicted in Gurbani. He said if man is aware about this relation, then he could think about the environment. He said if the flora and fauna was free of pollution then man would automatically be healthy.

Natural resources are polluted by chemicals and due to this, the aquatic animals are dying. Only the Gurbani could change the attitude and mind of the man. He said religion has never split man from nature.

Director, All India Pingalwara Charitable Society, Dr Inderjit Kaur, who was the guest of honour, in her address, highlighted the contribution of Bhagat Puran Singh to protect and flourish the environment. She said environmental pollution was the cause of infertility and congenital abnormalities in children. She said not God, but man-made pesticides were responsible for this pollution. She said God gives so many things. In turn, man must do something. For a healthy body, healthy environment is necessary, she added.

Vice-Chancellor of the host university Prof Ajaib Singh Brar said cleaning the environment was the responsibility of human beings. He said science was not responsible for pollution. He also invited Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal for a march from Guru Nanak Dev University to the Golden Temple to create awareness among people about environmental pollution. He said people needed a scientific mindset for the welfare of human beings.

Prof AK Thukral, in his keynote address, highlighted the problem of population, poverty and pollution in India. He said India was the second largest populated country in the world. It has not been able to cope with the issues of increasing population, extensive poverty and deteriorating environment. He pointed out the strategies adopted by the university such as waste water treatment plant, rain water harvesting, solar lights and solar water heating, biodiversity conservation, medicinal plants park in botanical garden, composting and vermin composting, stubble burning banned etc.

Prof Shashi Bala, Head, Department of Guru Nanak Studies, welcomed the scholars participating in the two-day national seminar.

Prof Jodh Singh, Editor-in-Chief, Department of Encyclopedia of Sikhism, Punjabi University, Patiala, presided over the first academic session. In this session, Prof Geeta Manaktala, Prof Shashi Bala, Dr MD Thomas, Prof Devinder Singh Chahal, Prof Deepali Bhanot, Prof Hamid Naseem and Prof Pradymna Shah Singh presented their papers on various environmental issues in context of Sikhism, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Hinduism and Jainism.

Amritsar, February 25
A jatha of over 150 Hindu pilgrims today left to celebrate Mahashivratri at the ancient Katasraj Temple in Pakistan on February 27. The jatha was led by the Bharatiya Janata Party leader Mohan Lal.

The pilgrims would celebrate Mahashivratri at the temple on February 27. Katasraj is believed to be the place where a discourse between Yudhishthir and the Yaksha took place, as referred to in the Mahabharata.

Before returning on March 3, they would pay obeisance at other prominent Hindu shrines, including Sheetla Mata Mandir.

A protocol was signed between India and Pakistan in 1974 on the basis of which the jatha went there. Every year, around 200 members could visit the shrine in that country.

President of the All India Hindu Shiv Sena Surinder Billa wished the members of the jatha to Katasraj a happy pilgrimage.