Amritsar, August 22
Following the reprimand of the Punjab and Haryana High Court about unregulated growth of hotels, inns and guest houses around the Golden Temple today, the Municipal Corporation (MC) will now have to initiate the process of tightening the noose around some of its officials. The court has granted three months’ time to charge-sheet the MC officials who are suspects and the next date of hearing has been fixed as December 19.

Meanwhile, the 125 hotel and guest house owners have reopened their establishments after keeping these closed for a few days.

The high court has directed the MC to charge-sheet the officials concerned of its Municipal Town Planning Department during whose tenure these illegal commercial establishments prospered and enjoyed immunity from action.

It has been learnt that the role of as many as 31 officials, holding the rank of Municipal Town Planners, Assistant Town Planners and building inspectors has come under the scanner.

Bakshi Ram Arora, mayor, said that action would be taken according to the high court directions. “We are bound to abide by the decision of the high court and whichever official’s role was found to be suspicious, action will be taken before the stipulated period fixed by the court,” he said.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) had categorically stated that 21 multi-storey hotels, inns and guest houses, including the SGPC-run Sri Guru Gobind Singh NRI Yatri Niwas, too, did not comply with the laid norms under the MC Building Bylaws and were issued notices. Six units among these enjoyed immunity from action as these had procured stay orders.

Meanwhile, the MC’s move to seal 15 hotels, guest houses and inns has got stalled temporarily despite the fact that aggrieved hoteliers and guest house owners could not procure stay orders during the hearing in the high court.

The court has directed them to file a fresh writ by August 26.

Meanwhile, the MC General House’s earlier proposal to regularise 125 hotels, guest houses and inns under its newly drafted one-time settlement policy could not be tabled before the high court bench for want of government’s nod, which is still awaited.

Dilpreet Singh Gandhi, a senior lawyer who represented hoteliers, said, “We have also apprised the court that these were small properties — some have four to six rooms — that have been converted into small hotels or guest houses. These units helped pilgrims and tourists find budget accommodation who come here primarily to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple,” he said.

“Similarly, the inns have been built out of cumulative charity funds through collected through donations from public. Moreover, Sri Guru Granth Sahib has been enshrined in many of the inns, which are being run on no-profit basis. It will be unfair to stop these from functioning and it will also hurt religious sentiments, if action is taken against these units,” he added.

The SIT had submitted its findings about the illegal units and the MC, too, had filed a report on its failure to carry out the sealing drive, owing to the law and order situation.

Unauthorised hotels that had not been paying any taxes were offering rooms at low rates while authorised hotels were being denied their share of business. Illegal hotels and lodges were not paying VAT, service tax, luxury tax, income tax and other taxes because they were not registered with the government. In this scenario, tax-paying and duly registered hotels were at the receiving end as, after paying so many taxes, they were not in a position to offer rooms at rates on a par with unauthorised hotels A P Singh Chatha

Amritsar, August 22
The proposed action by the Municipal Corporation against unauthorised hotels may see a spurt in the business of approved and tax-paying hotels.

Owner of Sun City hotel, APS Chatha, who is also the President of the Amritsar Hotel and Restaurant Association, said unauthorised hotels that had not been paying any taxes were offering rooms at low rates while authorised hotels were being denied their share of business.

He elaborated that unauthorised hotels and lodges were not paying VAT, service tax, luxury tax, income tax and other taxes because they were not registered with the government departments concerned.

“In this scenario, tax-paying and duly registered hotels were at the receiving end as after paying so many taxes, they were not in a position to offer rooms at rates on a par with unauthorised hotels,” he said.

Besides, non-registeration of commercial units turned into hotels and lodges makes them unanswerable to these authorities. He added that an unfair business environment was telling heavily on their investments.

He said that proprietors of many tax-paying, authorised hotels were thinking of opening unauthorised branches to make up the losses.

On the other hand, it was a double loss to the government as it was losing revenue from unregistered hotels and facing criticism for letting unauthorised hospitality units operate.

It has been noticed that many hotels around the Golden temple have been named like the serais of the SGPC, which is a no-profit no-loss organisation.

The Amritsar Civil Society, an umbrella organisation having a member each from several local NGOs, said the society was against unregistered hotels functioning from the narrow arterial roads of the city. However, at the same time, the society wished that these commercial units could be transformed into offices to save their owners from total financial loss.

Proprietors and administrators of authorised hotels believe that they will gain their legitimate business, said Piyush Kapoor, manager of a star-category hotel. Seasoned players in the hospitality industry fear that the high number of unregistered hotels will financially hit the authorised ones. They claimed that most hotels and lodges running without valid documents did not have the provision to face any eventuality.

Majority of these hotels did not have fire-safety equipment to tackle any fire breakout. Besides, these were situated in congested residential areas.

To cash in on the record number of pilgrims and tourists visiting the Golden Temple, a number of hotels, lodges and guest houses have come up on arterial roads around the shrine.

Politicians and influential persons have raised a majority of these commercial structures, violating building bylaws, fire-safety norms, pollution checks, parking spaces and the Sarais Act, 1867.

Amritsar, August 22
The Health Department’s staff, including the Employees Welfare Association and the PCMS Association, today protested against the attack on and misbehavior with the Civil Surgeon and members of his team by a group of around 30 youngsters when they had gone to raid a private hospital in the Islamabad area here yesterday.

The Health Department shun work for an hour to show their solidarity with the senior officials. They demanded stern action against the accused besides the owner of the hospital.

Police Commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh said he received a complaint this evening and he had marked it to the ACP (central) for registration of a case and further action.

Rajwant Singh Chhina, president of the Employees Welfare Association, said that the administration should seal the Narang hospital immediately and arrest the doctor and his accomplices. He said if the police and the district administration failed to do so, the health services in the district would be closed down.

A group of over 30 youngsters abused and threatened senior health officials yesterday as they did not allow them to enter Narang hospital near the Islamabad locality here for inspection. The youngsters threatened officials of dire consequences, if they dared to come to the hospital again.

Death of two women during delivery on July 13 and July 15 were reported from the hospital. As a policy matter, each and every maternal death is reviewed by the District Health Society chaired by the Deputy Commissioner to prevent such cases in future.

The Health Department had reportedly sent a letter to the hospital owner to submit records of the two cases on August 8. However, he refused to accept the letter. So, it was decided to conduct an inspection at the hospital by sending a team of doctors. An ultrasound centre at the hospital was sealed by the Health Department two years ago for violations of the PC-PNDT Act.

Amritsar, August 22
Leading the way for his students towards an eco-friendly lifestyle, Sanjiv Sayal, a teacher at Government Senior Secondary School, Jabowal, has installed a bio-fuel plant at his school.

Working on the project for more than a year, designing and implementing ideas and concepts towards sustainable clean energy, Sanjiv also put up a show on the functioning of the bio-fuel chamber.

Designed to convert kitchen and organic waste into fuel for cooking purposes, the chamber consists of a self-designed charring drum, with a chimney and a gas collecting chamber.

Sanjiv explains, “Most of us, especially the rural population, depend on wood for cooking purposes. It results in heavy deforestation and pollution. Biogas plants use various types of biodegradable solid waste to produce bio-fuel through anaerobic digestion. It has the advantages of producing energy, decreasing pollution, producing high quality fertiliser (spent slurry) and also preventing the transmission of diseases. Biogas system improves sanitation and conserves alternative fuels.”

He said, “This biogas plant is based upon the plant initially developed by Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI), Pune. But this particular plant is different from the prior ones in the way that it runs on kitchen waste and other starchy or sugary waste, the digestion of which takes place earlier as compared to the cow dung used in the conventional designs.”

The plant is a two-chambered cylinder with one acting as a digester and the other as a collector. “The digester is connected with an inlet to feed in kitchen waste and the collecting chamber has an outlet for gas,” he said.

With a master’s degree in horticulture, the banker-turned-teacher has been teaching his students about healthy and clean energy practices.

He has travelled to promote and educate people of nearby villages about turning paddy or agricultural waste into bricklets of bio-fuel through simple pyrolysis.

“The bricklets when sun-dried, can be used as fuel at home or industrial use,” he explains.

Of course, the process involves a lot of details, but it has its advantages. “Partial burning allows us to reuse the waste as fuel and less smoke is emitted during the process. Also, since it converts agricultural waste into energy efficient fuel, it provides a healthy alternative,” he said.

Initial help came from his brother, who is a researcher and works in the field of bio-fuel. Sanjiv informed that this type of biogas plant with tank sizes of 1,000 lt and 750 lt, saves approximately 100 kg of LPG, which is equivalent to 0.23 tonne of carbon dioxide per year and in a rural household it may save 3 tonne of wood per year.

“Methane gas has a high calorific value. Approximately 2 kg of kitchen waste is enough to serve a nuclear family per day,” he says.

Amritsar, August 22
School buses continue to violate norms with impunity as many of these are plying on the city roads without conductors while students could be seen standing at the bus door. Recently, a school bus had run over a woman while it was being driven recklessly in the city.

An Amritsar Tribune team saw many overcrowded buses and auto-rickshaws ferrying schoolchildren this morning. Many of these buses bear the names of prominent schools in the city.

Some days ago, a school-bus mishap witnessed the death of a student while over 20 others were injured. Recurrence of these incidents has brought to the fore the deplorable condition of the school transport and the need to fix responsibility.

School buses ferrying students in the city continue to violate traffic norms, which puts the lives of youngsters at risk. The practice is continuing despite meetings between the district administration and the school authorities frequently. There seems to be hardly any check on the condition of school buses, which are attached with the schools.

Many school buses are overcrowded with students. In some buses, students can be seen standing or sitting at doorsteps, which is quite risky. Many school buses ply without a cleaner or a conductor. Drivers discharge duties of conductors as well. Rash and high-speed driving, even on congested city roads, needs to be checked immediately.

DTO Lovejeet Kalsi said she was also noticing many buses of prominent city schools violating norms.

She said many earlier attempts to bring the schools on board came a cropper because the schools simply washed their hands off from erring school vehicles, claiming that these vehicles did not belong to their schools.

She said before disciplining schools, she was going to get a list of school transport, including number of buses and their registeration numbers in writing.

The DTO said then they would initiate a campaign of surprise checks. The vehicles violating norms would be penalised.

She said yesterday a circular was issued to schools to adhere to transport norms.

Amritsar, August 22
Five months after the digging of mortal remains of martyrs from the historic Kalianwala Khuh at Ajnala, Gurdwara Shaheed Ganj Committee will take the ashes of the martyrs to Haridwar for immersion.

The committee carried out a march in Ajnala today. The march will reach Bhandari Bridge tomorrow where BJP national secretary Tarun Chugh and senior BJP leader Laxmi Kanta Chawla will pay homage.

Historian Surinder Kochhar said the march would proceed to Haridwar after a halt at Banga, where religious leaders would pay tributes.

The march would reach Haridwar tomorrow evening and the following day, the ashes would be immersed in the Ganga according to the rituals, he added.

Earlier on August 1, the all faith ceremony was organised at Ajnala to pay tributes to the 282 martyrs, who were buried in the historic well during the 1857 mutiny.

The skeletal remains were dug out in February this year.

Amritsar, August 22
Unable to find any breakthrough in the kidnapping case in which a five-year-old boy Harvanshbir was kidnapped by unidentified persons earlier this month, the city police today announced a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh to the informer who would provide information about the accused involved in the kidnapping.

Police Commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh said the name of the informer would be kept secret.

The boy was kidnapped from the Ranjit Avenue area on August 6, when he was returning from school.

Immediately after the incident, the police sealed all the entry and exit points of the city. The kidnappers abandoned the boy in Guru Nanak Colony on Majitha Road the following day.

The police had released sketches of the suspects. However, they have failed to provide any breakthrough in the case so far.

The police commissioner said the informer could give information to the Civil Lines police, ACP (North), ADCP (City-1) or ADCP-2.

Amritsar, August 22
Left parties — CPI, CPI (M), CPM Punjab and CPI (ML) — will stage a protest against the alleged anti-people policies of the state government on September 4 in the city.

A senior communist leader, Rattan Singh Randhawa, said the joint movement of the communist parties would raise their voice against the hike in power rates, introduction of property tax, failure to control inflation and loot of natural resources.

He said they would demand hike in old-age and widow pension to Rs 3,000 per month, plots for homeless labourers and allowance for educated unemployed youth.

Communist leaders, including Balkar Singh, Amrik Singh and Niranjan Singh said the capitalist policies of the Union and the state government were wreaking havoc on labourers and youth. — TNS

Amritsar, August 22
Madhur Arora, a 16-year old student of Delhi Public School(DPS), Amritsar, lifted the ‘Champion of Champions’ trophy in the recently held 15th Punjab State Inter-School Shooting Championship-2014 at Guru Nanak Dev University. The championship was organised by Amritsar Rifle Club.

Madhur, who is the son of Dr (Major) Rahul Arora, also bagged a silver medal in the U-19, junior men’s rifle category.

Madhur was awarded Rs 25,000 as prize money for winning the ‘Champion of Champions’ trophy and Rs 14,000 for his silver medal.

School principal Sangeeta Singh congratulated the budding shooter.

As many as 278 shooters from 78 schools of 20 districts of Punjab competed in 16 events in the Under-15 and Under-19 categories.

Madhur, who took to shooting about a year and a half ago, welcomed the state government’s initiative to sanction Rs 5.2 crore for three world-class shooting ranges in Amritsar, Ludhiana and SAS Nagar.

He said the sport was very costly and the government must step in and set up a fund to promote shooters, as India is coming up remarkably well in shooting.

In January, Madhur won a gold and a silver medal in the team and individual junior men’s rifle shooting categories respectively, in the Top Shot National Shooting Championship held in Meerut.

In February, Madhur again bagged the bronze medal at the national level in Dr Karni Singh Memorial Tournament in the men’s .177 peep sight rifle shooting (team) event in Jaipur. — TNS

Amritsar, August 22
The city police have arrested four persons for allegedly possessing narcotic substances in the past 24 hours.

Gurnam Singh alias Mani of Chak Alla Baksh village was held with heroin worth Rs 5 crore in the international market. He was now residing in Sun Sahib Road area at Chheharta.

The police said the accused was brought on police remand and further investigations were in progress.

A case under Sections 21, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against him at the Islamabad police station.

In separate incidents, Sagar of Ram Bagh and Sonu of Gali Jaflan Wali were nabbed with 200 gm narcotic powder while Akashdeep Singh of old Majitha Mandi was held with 5 gm heroin.

Separate cases have been registered against them under the NDPS Act.