Kapurthala, September 12
Financial Commissioner (Revenue) NS Kang today pulled up the revenue staff of the Jalandhar Division spanning in six districts of the state during his meeting at Planning Bhawan here, asking them to improve the recoveries of under-valued stamp duty cases found by the auditing staff recently.

The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary egovernance C.Roul, Principal Secretary Revenue SS Khaira, Divisional Commissioner R Venkatratnam, and Deputy Commissioners, SDMs, Circle Revenue Officers and tehsildars of Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Nawanshahr, Amritsar and Tarn Taran.

Placing an elaborate 509-point agenda during the meeting, Kang said that it had come to his notice through Accountant General Punjab that several properties had been registered as agriculture ones so that less stamp duty is levied but on site these actually had been found to be commercial properties. He said that all the cases pertaining to different tehsils over which objections had been raised must be assessed by the concerned officials and reports after taking action be submitted by September 25.

He also pointed out that all those cases where the owners had been claiming to be charitable institutions be properly assessed for the convincing charity works that they have been doing before waiving off the stamp duties for them. He said that such cases had been passed onto sub-registrars and joint sub-registrars from the district collectors but these must be dealt with properly.

Kang also said that all those properties of the panchayats and government which had been encroached upon be restored to the respective owners within 30 days. He said that wherever there was some chance of rebellion, possession warrants be obtained for the same. He also directed the revenue staff to be prompt with its work pertaining to mutations, demarcation and girdwari.

The Financial Commissioner Revenue said that the list of villages falling in 5 km radius of the Municipal Corporations and class-1 Municipalities must be made available with the sub-registrars. He said that by publicly displaying the lists, the visitors too must be made aware that such owners of properties in such villages have to pay 3 per cent extra stamp duty.

C Roul told about the various facilities pertaining to revenue department under egovernance project including fard kendras and sanjh kendras. He said that no affidavits were required to be taken for admission in educational institutes and the students only must do self-attestation. The DCs who attended the meeting were DS Mangat of Kapurthala, KK Yadav of Jalandhar, Amit Dhaka of Hoshiarpur, Ravi Bhagat of Amritsar and Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal of Tarn Taran. ADC Amarjit Pal represented Nawanshahr. 

Jalandhar, September 12
In a major breakthrough, the ongoing suit filed by Ajay Jagota, the joint secretary of the Mandi Fentonganj Girls Senior Secondary School's managaing committee, has recently been dismissed after the school administration relented on the issue and accepted the role of the said office bearer as joint secretary of the institution.

While Jagota had initially alleged that the committee of the school was not accepting him as the joint secretary, he had filed a suit to get back his position.

On August 5, 2014 the court of Simran Singh, Civil Judge Junior Division, Jalandhar ruled that Jagota had been conveyed the decision of the (school) committee vide letter dated 15/5/2014. The matter had been compromised, so he did not want to proceed with the ongoing suit and the same may be dismissed as withdrawn.

Meanwhile, the school committee in a letter previously issued to Jagota on 15 May, 2014 had conveyed to him that the School Managing Committee 'had unanimously considered his request' and 'considered' him 'again as joint secretary of the managing committee being life member of the committee.'

The committee's letter further stated 'the committee had no objection is he started attending the meetings of the committee again…'

The dispute on the issue had initially kicked up after Jagota was allegedly disallowed to attend the meetings of the school.

Notably, the said suit also had a key role in an ongoing enquiry into the school by the Education Department.

The Education Department had cited this very court case as the reason not to conduct an enquiry into the mid day meal of the school. The resolving of the suit has also opened the way for the Education Department to conduct the said enquiry. Speaking to The Tribune, Jagota said he shall be requesting the EducationDepartment to hold an enquiry into the school's alleged mid-day meal discrepancies.

Earlier in the year, DEO Harinder Pal (formerly...

Deputy DEO) in his answer to the Deputy Commissioner seeking a report (on the mid-day meal of the school), had cited this ongoing court case as the reason for the enquiry not to be conducted.

The Deputy DEO, in his answer to an RTI by Jagota, had said - "As long as the court decision on the issue remains pending, conducting a departmental enquiry would not be appropriate."

Jagota's RTI, sought from the education department, had asked for the basis on which it was being held 'that the dispute regarding mid day meal (pertaining to the school) for past five years is pending in court' and 'the document which shows the pending mid day meal dispute'.

Jalandhar, September 12
Armed with the minimal police force, the Municipal Corporation team from Town Planning Department that went to Dhan Mohalla to pull down il]legal constructions today faced a violent protest.

A team led by Assistant Town Planner Param Pal Singh took along a JCB and started removing the covered verandahs in front of the two scrap dealers' shops. At this, some youth gathered at the site and started pelting bricks and stones at the team. Since there were just six policemen for security and over a 100 youth had gathered, the team quickly did some action and started to return.

As the team was returning, a lawyer from the shopkeepers' side brought a stay order copy which he procured from the district court. Meanwhile, MC Commissioner Manpreet Singh Chattwal has decided to get an FIR lodged against the miscreants who pelted bricks on the MC team.

Another team led by ATP Ramesh Chhabra today went to Kuki Dhab area in the morning and stopped construction of three shops there. "I have asked the owners to come with documents tomorrow for proper assessment", he said. He added that his team had also gone near Income Tax Colony where a hotelier after taking completion work had started covering his verandah and had started constructing staircases outside illegally against the plan. He said that he asked the owner to get the construction stopped immediately. 

Jalandhar, September 12
In the ongoing initiative to help the flood-hit in the Jammu and Kashmir, a special cell set up by the Vajra Corps has collected over 100 tonnes of relief material in the past few days.

Two special military aircraft have been pressed into service to airlift the material to the flood-hit state.

On Friday, the Vajra Corps dispatched the relief , comprising of medicines, food items, mineral water, cloths and blankets to Srinagar.

Two aircraft carrying relief material were flagged off by senior officers of the Vajra Corps.

The relief material has been airlifted from Adampur to Srinagar.

Flood relief aid collection centre started by the Vajra Corps has driven Army personnel as well as civilians of Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Ferozepur, Amritsar and Meerut to come forward and contribute for the flood-affected people of the disaster-hit state.

Apart from contributing relief material, Vajra Corps Engineers Task Force also continued its relief and rescue operation in Srinagar.

Jalandhar, September 12
Having remained stuck up at the flood-ravaged Kashmir, principal of Apeejay College of Fine Arts Dr Sucharita finally returned to the city last night.

She had gone to the Valley to spend vacation along with her family.

While she and other five members were to return on September 7, they got held up in Hotel Lalit with all return flights held up due to the floods.

“Though our area was away from the affected site, but we, too, bore some brunt as the supplies with the hotel were fast getting depleted but they continued providing food to us. There was no communication and power. The electricity back up was only for six hours. We could not venture out”, said Sucharita.

She was thankful to the Air Force authorities for managing the rescue operation well.

“There were about 15,000 people waiting to be air lifted. But we managed to get a turn last evening. We were dropped at the Raj Bhawan from where we drove back home last night”, she said.

The Kashmiri students at the Lovely Professional University who had lost contact with their families in the flood-ravaged Valley finally got a sigh of relief, as most of them were able to communicate with their kin on their mobile phones.

Ravleen, a journalism student, said that after having attempted to make hundreds of calls since the past three days, she managed to get in touch with her parents last night and got to know about their well-being.

“My parents had been held up on the top storey of their house for three days in Baramullah. They are there only but safe,” she said.

Similarly, KMV College teacher Harpreet Kaur, who has her father, brother and his family caught in the house at Shivpora area since Sunday last, said she too managed to contact her sister-in-law Simran on Whatsapp.

“They have not yet been rescued and have been contacting relief teams. We, too, on our part are contacting the PROs of the Defence and Punjab Bhawan staff to ensure some relief for them. I am happy that I have been able to interact with them and know that they are safe”, she said.

Meanwhile, the Gujjar families at New Indra Colony here, too, said they had been able to contact their families on Friday.

Liaqat Ali, who has as many as 70 members of his extended family held up in Kashmir, said he managed to talk to his daughter Bali on Friday and was satisfied. He said he had been told that they were in a durgah in Srinagar and were safe now. 

Jalandhar, September 12
Windy weather followed by showers in the afternoon caused a substantial dip in the mercury in the city on Friday, with weather getting a bit humid for the past couple of days.

Minimum temperature in the district was recorded at 22 degrees Celsius and maximum at 31 degree Celsius here on Friday.

A 24.2 mm of rainfall recorded by the met department, the weather for the coming few days is also predicted to be pleasant with a possible sprinkling of light showers.

The forecast for Saturday says the weather is going to be fair to partly cloudy. With varying amounts of rainfall in different parts of the district, the areas which witnessed relatively heavy showers caused worries for the paddy crop spelling trouble for farmers. 

Jalandhar, September 12
A one-day exhibition was held on the campus of the Lovely Professional University on Friday by the Border Security Force (BSF).

Besides different kind of weapons like guns, rifles, mortars, shells, a photo gallery related to different BSF operations was also displayed at the exhibition. BSF women constables inspired girl students through live demos in handling, assembling, loading rifles, light machine guns.

Inspector General of BSF Punjab Frontier, Ashok Kumar, shared his experiences with students and motivated them to join the force.

He said paramilitary forces, like the BSF, play a significant role in maintaining the internal and external security of the country.

He also informed students about the career opportunities in the BSF. He asked students to stay away from drugs.

DIG, Kharkan Training Camp, HS Dhillon and other officers were also present on the occasion.

Students were shown a documentary on officers of the BSF. Students also interacted with BSF officers.

Jalandhar, September 12
In a suicide committed by a married woman at Mann Singh Nagar near Ladhewali on Thursday, the Rama Mandi police has registered an abetment-to -murder case against her husband. The accused, Ashi Arora, has been sent to jail.

It is to recall here, that a newly-married woman, Neha Arora, on her birthday, had committed suicide by hanging herself from a ceiling fan.

The couple had married after a love affair two years ago. The couple also has a six-month-old child.

“The parents of the victim, had levelled allegations on Ashu Arora for mentally torturing Neha Arora,” said SHO, Rama Mandi, Vimal Kant.

“A case under section 306 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered,” added the SHO.

Girl’s parents, in their complaint submitted to the police, alleged that her husband was not letting her to meet them, due to which she was in tension and took the extreme step.