Jalandhar, June 19
Coming down heavily on the administration and revenue officials, the SAD-BJP leaders today held a meeting with the Deputy Commissioner, demanding a significant slashing of collector rates in their respective areas.

With the Lok Sabha polls coming as an eye-opener for the leaders of the alliance party and sensing that enhanced collector rates, which are the basis for several policies of the government, was a reason of public anger, most leaders, including Transport Minister and Shahkot legislator Ajit Singh Kohar, Chief Parliamentary Secretary and Adampur MLA Pawan Tinu, and CPS and Jalandhar (North) MLA KD Bhandari themselves made it to the meeting. Such a trend with legislators showing so much interest has not been seen earlier.

Besides political leaders, the meeting was also attended by Municipal Corporation (MC) councillors and property dealers, all of whom have direct or indirect stakes in the real estate market. Claiming that the Basti areas falling in his ward were actually slums, Senior Deputy Mayor Kamaljit Bhatia said the collector rate there should not be more than Rs 1 lakh a marla. In fact, almost all representatives portrayed the areas represented by them in a bad state.

Sudesh Vij, a businessman, said that New Railway Road, Mandi Road and Ladowali Road were all commercially dead and the rates of properties here had been kept as high as Rs 14.52 lakh a marla, which he said was far too high. “The film distributors here have lost their business. There are problems of constant logging of sewage water. Whatever market is there is actually a sick unit,” he emphasised.

Anil Chopra, a realtor, said that Modern Colony, which largely has mud houses, had the collector rate of Rs 4 lakh a marla comparable with posh areas like New Jawahar Nagar. “The matter must be looked into,” he said.

There also were a lot of voices over the rationalising of collector rates of Model Town. Dealers said the rates of residential properties were almost the same as commercial properties, which was unfair. At this, Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav checked the rates with tehsildar and found that the commercial rates were at Rs 19.80 lakh for a marla. The stretches, where residential areas were mixed with commercial and institutional properties, had a price of Rs 15.60 lakh a marla and purely residential areas fell at 35 per cent the amount at just Rs 7.5 lakh a marla which was fairly okay.

There also were demands of reduction of prices along the Jalandhar-Phagwara road where rates hover around Rs 9.5 lakh a marla. There also were similar issues raised for properties in the Panj Peer and Adarsh Nagar localities.

No representation from Jalandhar (West)

The BJP minister and Jalandhar (West) MLA Bhagat Chunni Lal, from where there was a lot of hue and cry, remained conspicuously absent. The two political leaders who have been in controversy over the drug trade - Avinash Chander from Phillaur and Sarwan Singh Phillaur from Kartarpur - too chose to stay away. Jalandhar (Central) MLA Manoranjan Kalia, who was in Chandigarh, and Jalandhar (Cantonment) MLA Pargat Singh, who is in Canada, chose to send their representatives. Kalia’s nominee demanded the reduction of prices from Rs 3.6 lakh to Rs 2 lakh a marla in the Transport Nagar locality, while Pargat’s nominee called for the rationalisation of rates in the Garha area.

Congress MP says no invite

Congress MP Chaudhary Santokh Singh said he was not informed about the meeting on collector rate by the DC office. “Since I am from the opposition party, the administration has been out and out favouring the ruling alliance by ignoring me completely,” he said. In his absence, Pawan Tinu, who had contested unsuccessfully, enjoyed the complete feel of an MP by being given a seat next to the DC.

‘No proposed lists of collector rates sent to us’

Jalandhar (Cantonment) MLA Pargat Singh’s nominee Kulbir Saini said the administration had not provided them any proposed lists of collector rates prepared by the tehsildars. “The revenue officials have already done some exercise at their own end. They have called us to take objections. We will be able to raise objections only if we get a copy of the proposed list,” he demanded. Other political representatives also echoed similar sentiments.

You earn and let us earn, colonisers tell DC

The colonisers and property dealers who had gathered in the DC meeting hall clearly told him that the administration had not been able to make any income by way of stamp duty collection, citing high collector rates as the main reason.

Ashwini Gupta, a coloniser, told him clearly, “Bring down collector rates. You make your own income and let us earn as well.” He implied that the real estate business in the city, too, had been down as people found it extremely difficult to pay 7 per cent stamp duty, which was calculated on collector rate. Since there has been a dip of Rs 129 crore in the revenue, the administration, too, has been treading cautiously.

Industrial area to be included as new category

The DC announced that while the collector rates had just two categories of residential and commercial slabs for each colony earlier, there would be a third industrial category from now on. He said, “There have been instructions from the state government already on the matter. We will follow the notified master plan and work out on a formula accordingly. Revenue officials will be visiting the industrial zones in their tehsils shortly, hold meetings with representatives and also check out the market rates there for making their assessment.” The industrialists had been ruing that since they required a huge chunk of land for investment, be it a factory, workshop or a godown, the rates could not be compared with commercial properties where a good income was made even from a small showroom.

No area in city to be left uncovered

The DC also announced that no area in the city would be left uncovered. He told all revenue officials to make sure that the names of all colonies in the city were included. “I do not want that reference rates from colonies in the periphery be taken for the purpose,” he said while urging the MC officials and councillors present there to ensure that names of all localities and main roads were incorporated.

The last word

The DC said that the discussions held today were subject to on-the-spot assessments to be made by the tehsildars and naib tehsildars. He said, “We are only taking views today. Do not be under an impression that whatever suggestions have been made will be complied with.” 

Jalandhar, June 19
In the most ironic statement a minister could give to his salary-less employees, Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jayani today told the doctors of the trauma centre (meeting him to demand their salaries which hadn’t been paid for the past three months) to apply for recruitment as regular doctors since they wanted their salaries paid (and upgraded).

Although he later instructed that their salaries be released soon.

While the trauma centre is Jalandhar is the oldest government-run trauma centre in the state and the only one running properly, its staff has been left in the lurch time and again.

The 30 staff nurses and three doctors of the trauma centre have been sans salaries for the past four and three months, respectively. While the health minister, on his routine inspection to the Civil Hospital, visited many wards, he gave a miss to the trauma centre.

Of the 10 specialist doctors who initially joined it, slowly, all have left and currently only three remain (two orthopaedic and one surgeon). These three haven’t been paid for the past three months. They also suffer pay anomalies which haven’t been addressed despite requests to the state ministers many times. All three of them are being paid pay grades which are lower than many of their colleagues who joined later. They also lack regular perks given to other employees.

The trauma centre, which was started as WHO-initiated project in 2009, grapples with loads of exigencies and trauma patients per day, ranging from serious accidents (head injuries) snake bites, burns etc. All serious emergency patients are ultimately handled by the trauma centre.

With a weekly average of 50-60 surgeries, the trauma centre needs a boost both in salary and infrastructure. Currently, the monitors at the centre are out of order, ventilators were recently fixed. It regularly falls short of oxygen cylinders and recently, an oxygen leak was also reported.

The class IV employees at the ward are also paid a meagre Rs 5,000 monthly.

Its maintenance and upkeep are also a regular problem and currently it has a single sweeper to take care of the entire establishment.

While Jayani today even transferred some staff for the non-provision of medicines to patients, the issue of the trauma centre presently remains unresolved. Presently, the only answer doctors have is that they should go for new recruitment.

Jalandhar, June 19
Three snatching incidents were reported in the city today. The police, meanwhile, managed to solve one case and arrested two snatchers in this regard.

The first incident occurred near the bus stand where a woman, Rupinder, a nurse, was robbed of his purse by two bike-borne youths. On the basis of the snatchers' identification details given by the woman, the police managed to nab the snatchers in five hours.

The accused were identified as Gurprit, alias Gopi (22), of Paras Colony and Avinash Kumar (20) of Shivaji Nagar.

The second incident was reported in Model Town, where two bike-borne youths snatched the purse of a woman.

The victim Harkirat, a resident of GTB Nagar, told the police that two snatchers suddenly pounced on her while she was heading home on rickshaw.

The third incident was reported at the Maqdumpura locality, where a woman, Renu, of Shashtri Nagar was robbed of her gold chain by snatchers.

The police started investigation and launched a manhunt to nab the snatchers.

Jalandhar, June 19
The Division No. 2 police today nabbed two notorious criminals who were wanted in several cases in the past. The accused were nabbed while they were planning to commit a crime near Football Chowk.

They were identified as Surinder Kumar, a resident of Company Bagh, and Jaskaran Singh, alias Karan, a resident of Basti Sheikh. One of the accused, Surinder, is also a proclaimed offender in a year old case.

The police also recovered one country-made pistol, sharp-edged weapons, a Lancer car, seven mobile phones and Rs 1.90 lakh.

During preliminary questioning, it was found that 12 cases of loot and fighting were registered against Surinder in Kapurthala, Nakodar and at various police stations in the city, while four cases were registered against Jaskaran.

The police said Surinder was declared a PO after a case of attempt to murder was registered against him at Division No. 2 police station.

Interestingly, Surinder Kumar, a member of Sapp Gang, had orchestrated an attack on Sukhdev Kalyan, alias Chiddi (main accused in the recent Arjun murder case).

Sources said police officials, who had not been arresting the accused for the past over a year, nabbed Surinder in a day after the Commissioner of Police rebuked the officials concerned for delaying the arrest for a year.

Jalandhar, June 19
A saree showroom, located in Peer Bodla Bazaar, was gutted in a fire in the wee hours today. Goods worth lakhs were reportedly reduced to ashes in the fire.

Sources said the fire broke out at around 4.20 am.The watchman noticed the smoke billowing out of the showroom. He immediately informed the showroom owner.

Maduban, owner of the Mahalaxmi showroom, alleged that had the Fire Brigade reached in time, the fire could have been doused.

Sources said two fire tenders were pressed into service which took more than two hours to douse the flames.

Fire Brigade officials suspected that a short-circuit was said to be the cause behind the incident. 

Jalandhar, June 19
Stinking bathrooms, chock-a-block corridors, long queues outside scanning centres and the poor drinking water facility greeted Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani’s at the local Civil Hospital here today.

Though he ordered the transfer of a doctor and a nurse, some issues remained unattended. A number of patients at the hospital had a list of grievances.

Harbhajan Kaur, a resident of Apra, said her husband, a kidney patient, was hospitalised a month ago. She said he needed blood, which she couldn’t manage, but the hospital authorities did not help her.

Relatives of Mohan Singh, a patient from Bhogpur, said they were buying medicines from outsideas,.

The patients said they were asked to visit private centre for test.

Long queues outside the scanning and diagnostic centres were also seen. Some patients have been waiting for over a month to get their tests done.

Some staff members said almost every day those who arrive early were examined. The rest are told to revisit the hospital next day.

While the minister had left his own men at the hospital some days ago to take a stock of the situation, some stringent measures are required to lessen patients’suffering and additional manpower at the hospital.

Meanwhile, the staff crunch is the key problem.It is linked with almost all other problems faced by patients at the hospital. However, the minister said 250 more staff members will be recruited soon. Earlier, the minister had promised to recruit 328 employees, which is yet to be fulfilled.

Amritsar, June 19
The below poverty line families are confused over the future of the ambitious Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Bima Yojna, launched in November last year, as instead of distributing smart cards to the beneficiaries, the government has asked respective deputy medical commissioners to take them back from health centres.

The District Health Department had released around 1.04 lakh smart cards for the identified beneficiaries of the scheme in February end. However, as the election code of conduct had come into force in the first week of the March, the local authorities could distribute only 41,000 cards to the beneficiaries.

The remaining cards are still in the custody of employees, who were deployed to distribute these. A new letter issued by the state government has asked the district health authorities to collect all the cards.

“After the elections were over, the employees were to be issued instructions to distribute these smart cards, which were in their custody. On the contrary, orders have been given to collect these cards giving rise to rumours that the scheme will soon be withdrawn,” said a senior official.

Under the scheme, the beneficiaries were issued smart cards, which entitled every family to free medical services up to an expense of Rs 30,000. Each beneficiary had to pay a premium of Rs 30 for availing the card.

The state government had initiated the scheme on the pattern of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), a scheme of the Central government for the BPL families. However, as the RSBY scheme had identified BPL families on the basis of the 2001 census, it was felt that many of such families were left out from the ambit of the benefit.

In the parallel Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Bima Yojna, the state government decided to extend the benefit to all the 1.04 lakh families availing the Atta-Dal Scheme in district.

Deputy Medical Commissioner, Dr Prabhdeep Kaur, said, “The beneficiaries, who received cards, have started availing the facilities. We are only taking back the cards, which were not distributed. These will be distributed among the beneficiaries as soon as fresh instructions are received.” 

Jalandhar, June 19
Travel agents, consultants and air ticketing agents can apply for travel licence till July 20. This is for the fourth time that the deadline has been extended. Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav asking travel agents to apply for licences under the Punjab Travel Regulation Act (earlier named as the Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Act).

Though there are over 6,000 immigration firms and air ticketing offices in the Doaba region, only 50 had applied for the licence under the Act. The original deadline was October 31, which was extended up to November 30 and then to December 31.

Following a petition filed by travel agents in the Punjab and Haryana High Court over certain provisions in the Act, the deadline was postponed. The then Principal Secretary Home Affairs, DS Bains, had come to Jalandhar and held an interaction with the stakeholders, pressurising them to get themselves registered but they demnded the removal of the objectionable clauses.

One of the demands of travel agents was about the nomenclature of the Act, which was changed from the Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Act to the Punjab Travel Regulation Act. The other demands concerning licence fee, maintenance and reconciliation of records with police stations and raids and confiscation of records are still under consideration. The next hearing of the case is scheduled for July 10.

Though forms and details regarding the act are readily available on Internet, a few application were received at Suwidha Centres. Those who are into the business for over five years have been asked to deposit Rs 1 lakh while others with less than five years of experience have been told to deposit Rs 25,000. Air ticketing agents are required to pay Rs 25,000 as licence fee. In addition, Suwidha Centres are charging Rs 1,500 as 90-day processing fee.

What the Act says

As per Section 3 of the act, no travel agent and consultant will allowed to do business without travel licence after December 31. If someone violates the act, he or she can be can be imprisoned for three to seven years under the Section 13 of the Act. A fine of Rs 5 lakh can also be imposed. The licence has to be renewed after every five years.

Phagwara, June 19
For the speedy redressal of complaints, the Municipal Corporation, Phagwara, has set up a grievances cell in the corporation office.

Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPC), Som Parkash, inaugurated the cell. Additional Deputy Commissioner, Iqbal Singh Sandhu, Municipal Commissioner Sukhminder Pal Singh Marar, SP, Phagwara and Gursewak Singh Brar were present on the occasion.

Som Parkash said the complaints can be registered on a toll-free number from 10 am to 3pm.

“The detailed information of the registered complaint and time taken by the official concerned to redress the same will be sent to the complainant through an SMS immediately after receiving the complaint.” said the Chief Parliamentary Secretary. 

Jalandhar, June 19
Following a complaint by an RTI activist regarding a sewage pond that had become a breeding ground for mosquitoes in Bhai Ditt Singh Nagar, the Municipal Corporation swung into action.

The MC deployed a JCB machine and a tipper to clean sullage and vegetation in the pond. RTI activist Anil Vashisht had lodged a complaint with the Municipal Corporation Commissioner, seeking the intervention of the MC in view of the upcoming monsoon season. He had stated that carcasses of animals had been dumped into the pond. Vashisht had also written to the Civil Surgeon after which fogging was done in the area. 

Jalandhar, June 19
The Council of Junior Engineers (PSEB) regretted the non-availability of technical staff in the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) and the Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited (PSTCL) today. According to the representatives of the council, there is an acute shortage of skilled workers, which is hampering the growth of the power utilities.

Council president RK Choudhary and general secretary Davinder Singh said there was an acute shortage of staff and it was adversely affecting various consumer services, including delivery of bills and the redressal of complaints.

Choudhary said, “Thermal and hydro power plants are facing a shortage of staff. About 1,000 posts of JE (electrical), 200 of JE (sub-station), and 6,500 of linesmen are laying vacant for a long. A large number of substation attendant (250) and assistant linesmen (7,500) are yet to be recruited. The PSPCL management has failed to recruit the requisite number of technical employees and junior engineers in the past three years due to the lack of a professional approach.”

Davinder said there was an inordinate delay in the settlement of their long-pending demands relating to the pay structure, promotional avenues and practical field difficulties. “Therefore, the council will take up the issues through circle-level protest rallies in front of all operation circle headquarters on June 25 from 12.30 pm to 2.30 pm," he said. 

Jalandhar, June 19
The house of a government employee was burgled near Vasant Vihar in broad daylight. Indira Walia, an employee of the Soil Conservation Department, said he had gone to the office at 10 am. When he returned home in the afternoon, he found the locks of the main door of the house broken.

“The burglars ransacked the house and decamped with an air-conditioner, an inverter, an LCD and some othervaluables,”said Walia.

Walia said he had lodged a compliant with the division number seven police.

Residents of the area demanded police patrolling in the area to prevent such crimes in future.