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Illegal hotels, inns, guest houses around Golden Temple
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2 NoCs for registration of properties found fake
Eve of Punjab
budget
Jail authorities pitch for sophisticated equipment
Sikh body to battle drug menace
Management institute holds placement drive for students
DC reviews health schemes
Protest against erratic power supply
Low voltage irks residents
Man robbed of car at knife point
Govt changes school timings |
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Illegal hotels, inns, guest houses around Golden Temple GS Paul Tribune News Service Amritsar, July 15 The sanctity of these hospitality units was challenged in the Punjab and Haryana High Court by a resident in 2010 while stating that these were illegal and in violation of the prescribed building bylaws. Acting on the PIL, the HC has already ordered the authorities to initiate action against illegal commercial structures by July 23. However, the next date of hearing has been fixed as August 22. The MC House, during its general meeting on July 11, had unanimously given its nod to go ahead with the proposal of regularising as many as 125 hotels, guest houses and inns by putting them under the ambit of compoundable offence. These units could never comply with the Municipal Building Bylaws, 1997, and revised bylaws of 2010, but could be held legal, according to old bylaws of 1976. If the Punjab and Haryana High Court gives its nod, then these units could be allowed to operate after imposition of a fine. The newly drafted proposal, which has been sent to the Local Bodies Department, will be deliberated upon by an SIT (special investigation team). The SIT comprised Deputy Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary Rahul Tiwari, Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat and Chief Administrator, Amritsar Development Authority, Sandeep Rishi. A report will be prepared by the SIT which will be submitted to the Punjab and Haryana High Court bench on the next date of hearing. The Federation of Hotel and Guest Houses Association has hailed the MC’s move and it hopes that it will get through in the court. “The issue relates to hundreds of families who depend on these businesses for quite some time. It will lend a helping hand at the same time in accommodating the heavy rush of tourists visiting the holy city daily,” he said. Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora said it was the government’s invitation on which the MC had drafted the proposal and all legal aspects would be looked into.
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2 NoCs for registration of properties found fake
Amritsar, July 15 The Deputy Commissioner has directed the police to register a case under relevant sections to prosecute the offenders. According to the new provisions, a property can only be registered with the Revenue Department following NOCs granted by the Amritsar Development Authority and the Municipal Town Planning Department within the MC limit. In this particular case, the NOCs were to be issued by the MC. Allegations that some people in connivance with officials of the District Revenue Department allegedly managed to get their properties registered without producing the mandatory NOCs have made those anxious who could not get their property registered. Since the state government changed rules, no property can be registered with the Revenue Department unless an NOC is issued first. A high number of people owning properties in unauthorised colonies failed to get their properties regularised during the given opportunity. Now, they are impressing on the authorities to resume the NOCs. This prompted the district administration to probe the allegations. Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat said since the matter was brought to his notice, he directed officials of the Revenue Department to probe the allegation to bring out the truth. About the resumption of the NOCs, Bhagat said, municipal corporations, development authorities like the Amritsar Development Authority and the Deputy Director, Local Governments, have been given some
days to issue NOCs against pending applications. The Deputy Commissioner said the decision about the resumption of the NOCs for getting the properties registered would be taken after taking legal opinion. He added that it was so because the act was only for a year. Meanwhile, the residents of colonies that have been regularised recently are unable to get the registries done as the municipal corporation and the Amritsar Development Authority (ADA) are not issuing them the mandatory NOCs. The ADA accepted the applications for regularisation of plots with fine till April 16. Earlier, the deadline was extended several times to accommodate as many people as possible. The government has time and again extended the deadline for facilitating regularisation of the properties. According to the regularisation policy, defined last year, the deadline was to end on October 7, 45 days after the notification of the policy. However, those who were left out of this were now pleading with the
government to further extend the deadline. Many plot-holders said they were unable to register their properties as the ADA was not issuing them NOCs without which the Revenue Department did not
issue registries. Its impact was apparent on the number of registries being done at the local revenue office. Sources said the daily rate of registries had plummeted from over three digits a day to nearly 30 per day. There used to be registeration of about 250 properties in Amritsar I and Amritsar II sections of the Revenue Department daily before July last year.
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Traders, industrialists seek regular power supply, labour
Neeraj Bagga Tribune News Service
Amritsar, July 15 He said announcements made for the economic development of this border city had never been put into practice. “The city should be transformed into a industry hub keeping in mind its proximity to Pakistan and the fact that it is the gateway to central Asia. Only then the maximum benefit of the Integrated Check Post (ICP) could be realised,” he remarked. Dalmia advocated that the funds earmarked for a particular section should not be diverted to economically non-productive and non-employment-generating projects. The Amritsar Hotel and Restaurant Association general secretary APS Chatha said at present the hospitality industry was the economic backbone of the city, yet the government failed to lend any constructive support to it. He said the Parkash Singh Badal government gave industry status to the tourism sector, but the power tariff was being charged at commercial rates. He said that instead of supporting the industry, it was being battered with a slew of taxes by the state and even the central government. He demanded that the state government must give budgetary allocation to improve the infrastructure of the city. He added that adequate measures should be taken to speedily open the heritage-value projects like the Ram Bagh garden, which houses the Summer Palace of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Gobindgarh Fort and the heritage village in Guru Nanak Dev University. He opined that it would prolong the stay of tourists visiting the holy city. Dr Shyam Sunder Deepti, professor, Government Medical College, said keeping in view the high number of school and college-going youngsters, we need adequate, affordable educational institutions. Hence, the state government should enhance its share of funding for education to ensure the matching global standards. He said there was high need to offer quality education at the primary and the middle government schools. A majority of these students are unable to cope with the pressure of higher education. The government must give weightage to the opinion of the economists, industrialists and businessmen from the state, as they are aware of grassroot realities and they must share their holistic vision for the growth of the city. Amrit Lal Jain, a businessman with decades of experience, said proceeding without a plan was akin to roaming aimlessly and opined that guided development would help revenue-generating industries to realise their optimum level. He advocated setting up of a think-tank for planning and resurrection of sick industry in the holy city while extending logistical support to the existing industry. Before heading for the development of industries, the holy city badly needed quality infrastructure and basic civic amenities. He said the blue print must address issues like the public transport system, which should cover the outer ring road of the city connecting the railway station, the bus stand and the Golden temple. He felt the biggest problem was of traffic and non-approachability of tourist destinations. The blue print should focus on preservation of the existing revenue-generating industries like tourism, hospitality, textile manufacturing, prominent trade of dry fruit and spices, which are frequently held with Pakistan. He emphasized that a state level economic think tank must be formed.
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Jail authorities pitch for sophisticated equipment
Amritsar, July 15 On Friday, the police had recovered 19 mobiles and six SIMs besides 150 gm of narcotics during the search. Just a day after this search, the jail authorities recovered 1 gm of charas and a mobile phone from two undertrials during one such routine
checking. Jail Superintendent RK Sharma said even as a prisoner had to pass through a three-tier security arrangement on the jail premises, there was no stopping of sneaking in of mobiles or narcotics inside the jail. “Hardly a day passes when we do not find mobiles or narcotics from the possession of jail inmates. The problem we face is that we do not have sophisticated equipment to trace them,” he said. The X-ray machine set up in the jail is though helpful in the routine search operation, it, too, has got its limitations. It sometimes fails to detect the material kept
in cellophane. With the result, there are fair chances of narcotics being smuggled in. “The mobile phones or narcotics, which are successfully sneaked in, will immediately be hid by the inmates even in the small pits dug up in the earthen surface near their barracks. Since we do not have mine detectors, it becomes impossible to locate them. The
mobiles seized are not found in the possession of the inmates directly, but are hidden elsewhere on the jail premises. It was the mine- detecting equipment that detected the location. Similarly, dogs, too, help in seizures a lot,” he said. Officialspeak
Hardly a day passes when we do not find mobiles or narcotics from the possession of jail inmates. The problem we face is that we do not have sophisticated equipment to trace
them. RK Sharma, Jail Superintendent
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Sikh body to battle drug menace
Amritsar, July 15 “The success of the campaign prompted us to take it across the state,” he added. The director said the addiction of various kinds and apostasy had spread far and wide among the youth. “It should be tackled to keep the posterity in touch with the Sikh heritage and values,” he said. Singh added that drug addicts were a threat to the law and order as they could go to any extent to fulfill their needs. APKF convener Harpreet Singh said 500 teams with five-members each had been constituted and these would meet 50,000 families in six months. Before beginning the drive in the state, the teams would be given proper training, he added. He said only those volunteers would be selected who had adequate knowledge of Gurbani, Sikh rehat maryada, communication skill and computers.
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Management institute holds placement drive for students
Amritsar, July 15 The selection process started with a pre-placement talk, which was followed by an introductory round, written test and the final interview. In the pre-final round, 15 students were shortlisted. After seven rounds, Karishma Batra, an MBA student of CKDIMT, Amritsar, was selected. He was offered a package of Rs. 2.4 lakh per annum. Charanjit Singh Chadha, president, Chief Khalsa Diwan, said, “The aim of the joint placement drives was to give students an opportunity to chose the right career.” Paramjit Singh Makkar, head of the Department of Corporate Relations and Placements, said more than 100 students of MBA, MTech , BTech , BCom, BCA, BSc (IT), BBA, MSc (IT) of CKDIMT and other colleges had participated in the recruitment process. Others present on the occasion were Narinder Singh Khurana, honorary secretary, and Dr Dharamveer Singh, Director (Education).
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DC reviews health schemes
Amritsar, July 15 He said special camps should be organised in the rural areas for the purpose. The DC said the government had constituted health and sanitation committees at the rural level under which an aid of Rs 10,000 was given annually. He asked the officials to ensure spending on cleanliness and sanitation. The DC instructed all private clinics and laboratories to report every case of TB to the District TB Officer. He said action would be taken against the clinics and laboratories if they failed to follow the instructions. Civil Surgeon Dr Rajiv Bhalla, District Family Welfare Officer Dr Ranjit Singh Buttar, Assistant Civil Surgeon Dr Balwinder Kakkar, Senior Medical Officer Dr Hardeep Singh Ghai and District TB Officer Dr Naresh Chawla attended the meeting.
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Protest against erratic power supply
Amritsar, July 15 He said that even as power cuts had troubled the common residents, these had also hit the local industry badly, as it is not able to run the units. Soni said that a large section of the local industry had already shifted to other states due to the state government’s policies and the remaining units, too, are unable to work due to power cuts. Soni lashed out at the Deputy Chief Minister for his promise to make Punjab a power-surplus state. He said that at the time of the 2012 elections, the SAD had stated that Punjab would sell power to other states, but the reality was that the consumers had to face frequent power cuts even to this day.
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The District Revenue Department has found two NOCs submitted for registration of properties fake. The inquiry was instituted on the instructions of Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat after allegations of fake NoCs surfaced.
Bhagat said NOCs for two plots falling in a residential colony on the Majitha road were made.
A Sikh religious organisation, Akaal Purkh Ki Fauj (APKF), today launched the campaign “Galwakdi” to wean the youth away from drugs.
The state government should give budgetary allocation to improve the infrastructure of the city. Adequate measures should be taken to speedily open the heritage-value projects like the Ram Bagh garden, which houses the Summer Palace of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Gobindgarh Fort and the heritage village in Guru Nanak Dev University as it would prolong the stay of
tourists.
Keeping in view the large number of school and college-going youngsters, we need adequate, affordable educational institutions. Hence, the state government should enhance its share of funding for education to ensure the matching global standards.There is a need to offer quality education at the primary and the middle government schools. A majority of these students are unable to cope with the pressure of higher education.
Proceeding without a plan is akin to roaming aimlessly, guided development will help revenue-generating industries to realise their optimum level. A think-tank for planning and resurrection of sick industry in the holy city should be set up while extending logistical support to the existing
industry.