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Factories being checked before VAT refunds
Govt offices default in power bill payments
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CBSE’s re-evaluation policy brings cheer to students
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Factories being checked before VAT refunds
Jalandhar, March 13 The Excise and Taxation Officers and even the Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioners (AETC) have been visiting each of the hundreds of companies in the city which owe a refund. The premises are being checked to see whether the products for which refund is being sought are being actually manufactured and the raw materials shown in the bills is actually procured. Once the ETO or any other inspecting officer submits the report, the AETC concerned is then electronically transferring the amount in his account. AETC-1 Tejbir Singh said he had been himself visiting some factories to do the checking. “The trend is being followed in all excise districts of Punjab,” he said. Senior functionaries of the Punjab Excise and Taxation Department have said that it had even rejected the refunds of some companies on account of the bogus purchase entries. The department officials have said that they had detected that many Jalandhar-based firms had shown purchases from the bogus and cancelled firms in their VAT return, following which their VAT refunds were being rejected after which a thorough scrutiny of all VAT refunds was on. Notably, on September 19 last year, the Excise and Taxation Department officials had conducted raids on the premises of six metal traders in Jalandhar. The two companies which were raided were Salasar Ispat and Sumesh Sales. In the course of investigations, the Excise Department had found that Salasar Ispat and Sumesh Sales were showing bogus purchase and submitting fake good receipts. “About 112 firms in Jalandhar had shown purchases from these firms, thereby bringing all of them under the scanner,” said sources in the department. In its latest disclosure, now the Excise Department officials have revealed that VAT refunds of Jalandhar based firm M/s Gargip International have been rejected on the grounds that major purchases were from M/s Salasar Ispat and M/s Sumesh Sales Corporation, who have been established as bogus dealer during investigation by the department. According to senior Excise officials, Salasar Ispat and Sumesh Sales submitted fake good receipts and had merely transferred paper of sale instead of any stock. Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Jalandhar, Sarojini Gautam Sharda, said Gargip International had made huge purchases from these firms to the tune of Rs 13.30 crore from Sumesh Sales and Rs 38 lakh from Saslasar Ispat during the period 2012-13. “After the investigations, VAT refund of Gargip to the tune of Rs 20,45,219 (July 1, 2012 to September 30, 2012), Rs 16,99,549 (October 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012) and Rs 27,39,013 (January 1, 2013 to March 31, 2013), have been rejected”, she added. |
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Govt offices default in power bill payments
The biggest defaulter is the municipal committee waterworks which has dues of Rs 148.44 lakh to be paid as electricity bills. Other civil authorities, including Municipal Corporation Jalandhar, PUDA, PWD (B&R) and Zila Parishad offices, however, have cleared all bills in time. The Public Health Department is not far behind, with an amount of Rs 64.69 lakh yet to be received as power bills by the PSPCL till February this year. Apart from this, the Punjab Police, too, have to pay up Rs. 44.46 lakh for power consumption. Hospitals and government dispensaries are also not behind, with Rs 19.82 lakh and Rs 18.93 lakh due from the Deputy Commissioner office. The SDM office, Tehsil complex, Civil Courts, CID, Sewerage Department and Revenue Department, though, have no dues pending. The Irrigation Department has to pay Rs 8.38 lakh, while Civil Defence, too, has dues to the tune of Rs 6.77 lakh. Deputy Chief Engineer Gopal Sharma said the defaulters, including government offices, had been served notices and ultimatums. “We will cut the electricity connection if any department fails to pay the due amount,” he added. |
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A year after, Akal Academy mini-van overturns again
Jalandhar, March 13 The dozing, for the past year, district authorities quickly declared that they were proceeding to take strict action against all schools which, for the past year, did not revamp their transport system. The accident on Tuesday left one fourth standard student injured (with a fracture in his arm), while six others in the vehicle had a narrow escape. What’s shameful is that it hints that a year after the tragedy, no lessons have been learnt by either the school or the district authorities and the same mistakes are being repeated. There are grave similarities between the two incidents. Like last year, the school authorities have been quick to disown the vehicle, saying it is private. The villagers, in turn, have complained again that this driver, too, was used to over-speeding. The vehicle the students were travelling in, was a mini-van (chota haathi) just like last year and it overturned. School principal Kulwinder Kaur said, “We have been very careful about students safety and all but one did not get any injury. The school is also regularly visiting the injured student.” When asked why the school was continuing to employ private transport, especially the vulnerable mini-vans like the one used last year, the principal said all the remaining school vehicles had been changed. The rest of the vehicles are all school-owned buses. We will also make sure ‘now’ that any further use of these kind of vans is discontinued, he said The driver of the vehicle was also a licence-holder hired by the school only 10 days ago as per the principal. Interestingly, she said he, too, had been hired as there were complaints by parents regarding over-speeding by the previous driver. “This was not over-speeding,” she said. Ďt was a tragic accident. We have been very careful about the safety of our students since the last year’s incident, she said. The principal, when asked whether the school had received any checks or instructions to change their private vehicles for the past one year from the DTO or the Education Department, said no one had ever enquired about the state of their school transport. A similar situation prevails in all other schools of the area. DC Varun Roojam said, “We have taken a suo motu cognisance of reports regarding the accident and the DTO shall be visiting not just Akal Academy but all neighbouring schools to review the state of their transport and drivers. None of the offending schools will be spared. The authorities shall be pulling them up.” Interestingly, while grave concern was expressed right after the accident last year, within a month, it died down. A report sought by then DC Shruti Singh from the Education Department regarding school transport and driver details never surfaced in the public domain. Slowly, complacence set in. Roojam said the said report arrived at their office about 10 to 15 days ago, but before a crackdown on offending schools could be started, this accident happened. Meanwhile, then Elementary (DEO) Kuldeep Sharma, who is presently DEO (Secondary) says he isn’t aware about the report and the present DEO (Elementary) must know about it. When reminded the report was sought when he was DEO (Elementary), he said he would look into the matter. DTO Jaswant Singh Dhillon did not respond to phone calls despite repeated attempts. Fact file
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BCA student jumps before train, dies
Her father Narayan Singh is a cook in the Punjab Police. Urmila's father told the police that her daughter was depressed for the past few days and that might have been the reason of her taking the extreme step. “When Urmila returned from college this evening, she told me that she was going to meet her friend. An hour later, I was shocked to know that my daughter had committed suicide,” he told the police. Surinder Singh, investigating officer, Government Railway Police, said the girl had committed suicide in front of a Hoshiarpur-bound passenger train. Her head got chopped off after she was run over by the train. Suspecting no foul play behind her death, the police initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the
CrPC. |
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No campaigning at Cantt hits leaders
Deepkamal Kaur Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, March 13 Since the forces do not allow any campaigning in the Army area, the political leaders are confused as to how they will reach the Army personnel to convince them to cast a vote in their favour. They have been planning various innovative ways to reach out to the forces since they comprise a sizable vote bank. While earlier, the Defence personnel could be registered only as service voters, no such effort was required on the part of the local political leaders to lure them for the votes were sent to their native areas by way of postal ballot. This time, with the personnel choosing to enrol themselves as general voters, they would be casting votes here at the place of voting with state and local issues mattering to them in decision-making. In the previous elections, even when the poll fever is at a high pitch in the entire city and on its outskirts, there has been a lull in the cantonment area with complete restriction on the movement of autorickshaws with blaring loudspeakers and banners by political parties. Defence officials are likely to maintain the same decorum in the coming Parliamentary elections. While the Congress has been harping on its recent policy decision on One Rank-One Pension, the SAD-BJP leaders want to highlight a slew of promises made there to the personnel and the retirees on having special police stations and a court for deciding their cases. One way that the political parties are thinking of reaching out to the personnel is by way of advertisement on the local FM channels. "Since the Army officials and jawans like to stay tuned to the radio, it can be the most effective mode of reaching out to them. We can plan a short crisp advertisement to lure them towards our party by highlighting the most important issue of clearing One Rank-One Pension in our interim budget recently, besides other welfare projects like scholarship schemes for their wards extended to them by our party in the Centre,” said district Congress president Rajinder Beri. "We can try other means as well through other media channels. Direct campaigning is likely to be a problem but we will definitely have to chalk out a different strategy for the same,” he said. Jalandhar Cantonment MLA Pargat Singh said he was not too sure as to how things would work out. "I have planned to meet some officials in the Vajra Corps to convince them to allow us to hold some planned get-together or an interaction session with the personnel,” said the SAD legislator. Public Relations Officer, Defence, Naresh Vig said, "The parties will have to take permission from the Election Commission of India and the Ministry of Defence for any campaigning inside the restricted cantonment area. The guidelines of the Election Commission of India do not allow any political activity inside Army area. Campaigning will be possible only if the Election Commission of India changes its guidelines. The parties can reach out to only some pockets of civil areas inside the cantonment, as was the provision earlier".
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Legal authority for handing over matrimonial dispute cases to ADR
Jalandhar March 13 The aim behind the move is to ease the rush of complaints at the women’s police stations and achieve early compromise in the cases. The move came following the directions issued to the District Legal Services Authorities across the state by the Punjab Legal Services Authority (PULSA). Sources said, "All the matrimonial dispute cases will be redressed at the mediation centre situated in the local courts where a panel of retired judges will try to help reach a compromise between the disputing couple through their expertise." To give wings to the initiative, a high-level meeting was recently held in Jalandhar in which the Secretary, District Legal Services Authority-cum-Chief Judicial Magistrate Tajinder Bir Singh, Police Commissioner, Jalandhar, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Jalandhar, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), DPRO, Jalandhar, President ,District Bar Association (DBA), District Attorney and some other judicial officers participated. Sources said a consensus was reached between the police and the judicial officers in the meeting to hand over the matrimonial dispute cases to the mediation centre where experienced judges rather than private counsellors engaged at the women’s police station, would act as a mediator between the two parties. Interestingly, sources said although the women’s police station has a panel of over 12 women counsellors, due to the alleged reports of biased decisions, the judiciary intervened to provide a level playing field to the disputing couples. A senior police official said there were reports that private counsellors, including the women police officers, were sometimes biased towards one party and used to force their decision on the other party. "Many a times, the disputing couple reportedly also raised a finger at the counselling team and preferred to opt out from the counselling session," said the police official. Secretary, District Legal Services Authority-cum-Chief Judicial Magistrate Tejinder Bir Singh, while confirming the development, said they had recently received directions from the Punjab Legal Services Authority to insist upon the police to shift matrimonial dispute cases at the mediation centre operating in the district courts. "We have held a meeting with the police and told them to shift some cases of matrimonial dispute to the mediation centre where a team of six experienced people, including the three retired judges, will act as mediator. A panel of special judges have been specially trained by Supreme Court with a special 48 hours of training," said Singh. Singh said, "Whenever the women police station receives any complaint of dowry and domestic violence, the case should be sent to the mediation centre for compromise before filing any FIR. If the disputing parties are satisfied with the mediation, the complaint will be dismissed. Otherwise, it will be referred to the police station for action as per law." Asked if it is mandatory for the parties to get mediation through the centre, Singh said, "It is entirely at the discretion of the disputing parties if they want mediation thorough retired judges at the mediation centre or not." "To promote the idea and make the people aware of the initiative, we are putting up posters at the women’s police stations, outside courts and at some other public places," Singh said. DCP Rahul S said, "To ease the rush of complaints and to achieve speedy compromise, the city police will surely send some of the cases to the mediation centre at the district courts." The police officials said the rural women’s police stations received 714 complaints of domestic violence and dowry harassment last year. Interestingly, out of these complaints, a compromise was sought in 442 cases of which only six FIRs were registered at the women’s police station. Some complaints were found to be fake and some sent for litigation." New ADR centre coming up
To separate the working of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), a separate building is coming up at the District Courts Complex. Secretary, District Legal Services Authority-cum-Chief Judicial Magistrate Tejinder Bir Singh said, "The Rs 1.66 crore project will be completed within six months. Construction has already started. The building will house the offices of the Secretary, ADR, office of the free legal aid services, lok adalats and the mediation centre." |
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AAP submits complaint against SAD leader
Jalandhar March 13 AAP activists in their complaint stated that the Akali leader had indulged in high-handedness with police officer Naresh Dogra. He made an attempt to put pressure on the police officials despite knowing the fact that the model code was in force. AAP activist are of the view that the Election Commission should take action against such leader. High drama had prevailed at the Police Station Division No. 4 on March 9 when SAD leader and chairman of the District Planning Committee Gurcharan Singh Channi had allegedly rebuked the Station House Officer (SHO) for impounding the motorcycle of his employee. |
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CBSE’s re-evaluation policy brings cheer to students
Jalandhar, March 13 Academicians, students and principals have wholeheartedly welcomed the move and some even say it takes off much of the added pressure from the students, because now they can be assured a re-evaluation of their answer sheets won't be a limited process which ends merely at verification. As per the renewed policy, students appearing for board exams won't just be able to get their answer sheets re-evaluated but will also be able to get access to their answer sheets — a move termed to be radical by many and awaited for by the students for ages. The facility which will be totally online, however, comes with some riders. There will be a limit to the number of questions for which re-evaluation is being sought. Students can specify only some questions, not the whole answer sheet. Re-evaluation will also be available only for English, Hindi, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Political Science and Economics subjects. Deepa Dogra, principal, Cambridge International School, said: "We are very happy with the move. Lack of proper access to their work, post examinations, robbed the students of the chance to see what they had done. Re-evaluation was limited and meant a verification or recheck of the total marks at the most. While it was being felt that they were being robbed of the possibility to raise their level of performance further, the new move will give them clarity. In board exams, the addition of even some marks makes a huge difference. It's a great move." KS Randhawa, HOD, examination, MGN School, Adarsh Nagar, said, "I appreciate the new re-evaluation policy of the CBSE. It will increase the transparency level in the examination system and will enhance the confidence of students in the system." A Class XII medical student,t Snimarjot Kaur, said: "If someone is very confident of his performance and the marks don't match, they will now have nothing to fear because re-evaluation will make things clear. Since in medical, students score very high, every mark matters." Manveen Kaur, a Class XII commerce student, said: "It's a great policy change. Earlier, students thought asking for re-evaluation was a risk because not much would come out of it. But with this move, we are assured that there will be concrete results. Re-evaluation was rare earlier also due to these reasons. But this year, it is bound to go up." Riya Yadav, a non-medical student, said: "In the past also, I had gone for re-evaluation. I got a raise of six marks (in Class IX). Now, the policy is much more relaxed. It will give a fair chance to us to see our own work. If we have doubts, our marks is not as much as the work we have done. Besides, for non-medical student, every mark counts because the percentage also affects our competition results. Now, evaluators will get much more cautious." |
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Jalandhar Tribune invites feedback from its readers on issues of public concern relating to Jalandhar, Phagwara, Kapurthala and the nearby areas. Readers can email their views to They can also send their views to: Feedback, Jalandhar Tribune, Sector 29, Chandigarh - 160029. Letters sent by post must mention 'Feedback for Jalandhar Tribune' on the envelope and it should be signed and must contain the address and telephone number of the sender. It should not be more than 150 words.
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Jalandhar, March 13
Jalandhar, March 13