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Now, PUDA announces high-end flats
Bid to loot PNB ATM
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Master Cadre Union up in arms against
govt
Dr Supriya suicide case: Candlelight march by
residents
Holidays galore in past
fortnight
Now, life saving drugs to cost more
Elderly woman’s murder
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Now, PUDA announces high-end flats
The foundation stone for the 22-storeyed flats scheme, now named Splendid Heights, had been laid by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal on February 10. The four-bedroom flats in the scheme in an area of 2385 sq feet area have been priced for as high as Rs 91.9 lakh, while the three-bedroom flats with a floor area of 1874 sq feet are being sold for Rs 71.9 lakh. The earnest money too for the four BHK and three BHK of the flats has been kept at Rs 6 lakh and Rs 4 lakh, respectively. The price of the PUDA flats is extremely high, especially going by the response the JIT got in March this year. The three-bedroom flat of the JIT in a relatively bigger covered area of 2,660 sq feet had been priced for Rs 67 lakh and still there had been hardly any response. “While the government housing schemes are meant to be in the affordable range of common people and should be aimed at fulfilling their basic requirements, they now seem to be framed keeping in view a completely commercial bent of mind. With Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal having announced 832 flats at the site eight months ago, people had high hopes and had been eagerly awaiting the announcement of the scheme. But with such high rates quoted, their hopes have completely dashed,” said Sanjay Sehgal, Congress leader and a realtor. Kailash Thukral, a resident, opined that when the government wanted to dissuade people from investing in illegal colonies, it should either formulate a proper policy of private realtors which has not been done for the past over 16 months or should at least itself offer affordable, time-bound and reliable schemes. The timeframe mentioned by PUDA in its insertions reads, “Scheme opens on October 7 and closed on November 7. Draw of lots to be held on January 6, 2015. Construction begins in January 2015 and completion by July 2017.” The various features listed include modular kitchen, exquisite bathroom fittings, 10 years maintenance, club, banquet, terrace garden, restaurant, bar, swimming pool, indoor games, gymnasium, yoga facility and three elevators for each floor. Almost similar facilities had also been assured by the JIT and still there had been a meek response. The applications have been invited for 382 3BHK apartments and 108 4 BHK apartments, which means 490 out of 832 flats announced earlier. Both flats will have additional servant room with bathroom. The total project site mentioned earlier was 18.97 acre and the total cost of project had been mentioned as Rs 550 crore. PUDA had also announced that a Ludhiana-based architect had been roped in for the project. The approach road to the flats beginning from the jail gates has been proposed to be 150 feet towards the entrance of the flats. The approach road from Football Chowk had been widened to 80 feet by a quick-action demolition by the MC two years ago. PUDA has, perhaps, chosen this time for inviting the applications since the festive season is on and the NRIs have already started descending in Punjab and they, too, could pitch in with their investments. Land stands mortgaged, CA defends
Interestingly, PUDA has nowhere in the insertion mentioned that this site falls on Jail Road and stands mortgaged with the Bank of Baroda for an amount of Rs 400 crore since March last year. However, PUDA Chief Administrator Manvesh Sidhu says that people should not worry on that front. “The registries are to be done for the allottees three years down the line and we are already in a position to get the land free anytime now. Moreover, the bank has no problem at all, with we going ahead with the scheme”. The CA also defended the price range for the flats. He said, “It will be a ready to walk-in kind of a flat with the Jaguar sanitary fittings, chimneys in kitchen and best tiles.” He added that the location of the flats could not be better than this one. He claimed, “We are not making any profits out of this scheme.” Jalandhar Improvement Trust had the bitter experience of getting just 18 applications for 119 super-deluxe flats in Surya Enclave |
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Bid to loot PNB ATM
Jalandhar, October 9 SHO police division No. 5 Sukhbir Singh said the police had seized the CCTV footage and started investigations. Past incidents
January 15, 2013: ATM of Punjab National Bank at Sham Chaurasi in Hoshiarpur broken, Rs 8.84 lakh looted June 3, 2013:
Attempt to break lockers of Punjab National Bank on Ladowali Road, Jalandhar December 23, 2013:
Miscreants looted Rs 18 lakh from two unguarded PNB ATMs at Dadwindi village and Talwandi Chaudhriya village in Kapurthala district January 12:
Unidentified miscreants made an attempt to cut a PNB ATM with a gas-cutter February 24:
PNB ATM looted in Mukerian in Hoshiarpur June 18: ATM of Union Bank of India broken open. Accused caught on CCTV August 19: Robbers made an attempt to loot cash from the ATM of PNB situated on Mahabir Marg October 9:
ATM of PNB targeted, no cash looted. |
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7 booked in attempt to murder case
Jalandhar, October 9 Seven persons, who were charged with attempt to murder and other Sections of the IPC, have been identified as Narinder Kumar Kala, Sunny, Sabhi, Rakesh Kumar, Kishna, and two women. A case under Sections 307, 323, 341, 354, 148 149 of the IPC was registered at the Rama Mandi police station. The victim Nathpal alleged that last night Narinder’s wife had fought with my wife after the former hurled abusive remarks at her. In the melee, my wife sustained injuries. Today, I went to file a complaint against Narinder’a wife at the Rama Mandi police station and when I was returning home, I was cornered by over five armed persons, who attacked me and left me seriously wounded on the road, Nathpal said. He had identified some of the assailants and informed the police. “The attack was clearly orchestrated by the Akali councillor Balvir, who has an old enmity with me. Since Narinder, whose wife fought with my wife last night, has good relations with councillor Balvir, he planned the attack. I demanded the registration of a case against the councillor for engineering the brutal attack,” the victim asserted. Victim, had, however, admitted that Balvir was not present at the spot but he only arranged men to inflict injuries on him. Councillor Balvir Singh Bittu denied the allegations and said, his name was being dragged by Nathpal unnecessarily into the case. “Nathpal is levelling allegations against me because certain dalits of Dhilwan are close to me, and this doesn’t go well with Nathpal. He had been nurturing enmity with me since the day he was arrested in the Vicky murder case last year,” Balvir added. Avtar Singh Karimpuri, state president BSP condemned the incident. He said, “We strongly condemn the attack on Nathpal. If the victim is suspecting the role of SAD leader Bittu, he should also be brought to book as per the law” adding that earlier also, BSP had held several demonstrations in favour of Nathpal last year against police and government for implicating him in murder case of Vicky. Past enmity between Balvir and Nathapal
SAD concillor Bittu and Nathpal have been at loggerheads since the murder of youth Vicky in August last year. The enmity between the duo intensified after a 30-year-old Vicky got murdered in August last year. He was reportedly killed after his bike collided with Nathpal’s on the GT road. Vicky was accompanied by Raj Kumar, who was also a driver of councillor Bittu, when he had brawl with Nathpal after their bikes got collided. In the brawl, Vicky had died. Raj Kumar was a driver of SAD MC councillor Bittu. The accused Nathpal, on the other hand, is the complainant in the four-year-old Vijay Dhilwan shootout case in which Bittu had allegedly killed him in self-defence during Vienna-related disturbance in the city. The two parties had been on loggerheads owing to their opposite political affiliations. Nathapal was arrested by the city police in the Vicky murder case last year, while the protest by the BSP in favour of Nathapal forced the police to arrest Bittu in the four-and-a-half-year-old murder case. Both accused had recently come out on bail. |
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Master Cadre Union up in arms against
govt
Jalandhar, October 9 As many as 50,000 teachers across the state and 3,000 in the district have been hit by the recent government notification changing the category of the Master Cadre Union from A to C. Along with their strongest protest against the demotion of their status, they have also opposed the letter which informs them they shall only get Rs 250 as mobile allowance instead of the Rs 500 which they were getting as category A employees of the Education Department. In addition to that, the change in the status might also mean less remuneration in the time to come owing to the fact that the pay commission recommendations will be according to their new grade. Along with the Master Cadre Union, today the Lecturer Union, ETT Union (Sidhu group), Science Teachers Association, RMSA and SSA Union, STA Union, SC/BC Union (Chadarh), joined the Master Cadre Union and said they would participate in the agitation in the coming days. Along with burning notification copies on October 13, the union said from October 16-25, the union activists shall submit demand letters to MLAs and on October 31, district level dharnas will be held after which letters will be submitted to the DC and the DEO. The union said if the government did not take back its notification during this time, then plans shall be made for a dharna in the next state level meeting of the union, said activists. While the present notification has changed the category of the Master Cadre Union Punjab to C (from A), the categories of other various unions have also been changed. While the ETT teachers were formerly in category B, after the notification they have been moved to category C as well. Lecturer Union which was in the category A has also been moved to category B. Their mobile allowances have also been reduced to Rs 300 from the Rs 500 which they were earlier getting. State president Gurpreet Singh Riar said, "The notification wasn't tabled earlier and now we have suddenly been brought down to Grade C. We shall not be at peace unless our category is changed, the notification regarding reduced mobile allowances taken back and our previous stature restored." Flashback
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Dr Supriya suicide case: Candlelight march by
residents
Jalandhar, October 9 Traffic on the Jalandhar-Nakodar highway remained blocked for over an hour due to the dharna, owing to which police had to divert the traffic on the other side of the highway for both to and fro traffic. Traffic remained block for over half a kilometre for a considerable span on the evening causing inconvenience to commuters. Robin Kumar, who heads the Guru Ravidass Shagharsh Committee which called for the dharna today, said, "Unless the Ludhiana police books the real culprits responsible for the incident, marches like these will continue to be held. We want a CBI probe, booking of the people responsible with their names mentioned in the FIR and we also eventually demand for stricter laws in medical institutions which would prevent students being overtly burdened." "We will also make sure such marches are conducted regularly until the police agrees to demands. If marches don't work we shall hold fasts and dharnas." Harpreet Kaur, cousin of Dr Supriya, who was also present on the occasion, said, "I also want to be a doctor. But the incident has shaken me. For a duration of 5-and-a-half-years our teachers are the ones who have to protect us. But when a meritorious student like Dr Supriya had to undergo such a struggle that it compelled her to commit suicide, it comes as a big shock for students like us. The faith of the youth is shattered. The system needs a sea change to save students from undue harassment." Dr Supriya's parents DHO Dr Balwinder Kumar and mother Rajinder Kaur had yesterday said they want the police to lodge an FIR naming the professors in the next 24 hours. "We believe a lobby is shielding the culprits. The police investigation is suffering due to that so we want a CBI probe. The diary of our daughter hasn't been found, the CCTV footage at the DMC hasn't been explored. Had she died after duty hours, it would have been another matter. But she passed away during duty hours. She had her duty right from 8 am to 10 pm and no one even thought where she went," alleged Supriya's father DHO, Jalandhar, Dr Balwinder Kumar and mother Rajinder Kaur .
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Holidays galore in past
fortnight Deepkamal Kaur Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, October 9 For the past two weeks, the government offices will open for the fifth day tomorrow as there had been two holidays last week as well. Since there will be a weekend again after the working day tomorrow, there are chances of attendance of staff remaining thin again and only a few pending files getting cleared. Owing to too many holidays in the two weeks, the pendency of the applications with the Suwidha Centre, too, has risen to a great extent. Since the time of processing of files is calculated on the basis of the working days, the applicants for various works who will have put up any files even in the last month will still have not got back their certificates and might not get till the next week, which thankfully has all working days. But since the festival season is round the corner, there are chances of attendance in the entire month remaining low, especially with two more holidays lined up in this month. But people are much upset at the slow pace of working this month. Ganesh Kumar, a resident, said he wanted to sell his residential property falling under PUDA ambit for which an NOC was required. “I had been desperately waiting for the Punjab Cabinet decision on the extending of the regularisation scheme of colonies which was finally passed on September 23. Ever since I had been awaiting a formal notification to reach the PUDA office here so that the staff could process my file. I am told that because of too many holidays lined up for the past fortnight, the notification had not yet come and would most likely be dispatched the next month,” he said.
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Now, life saving drugs to cost more
Jalandhar, October 9 The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had capped the prices of these drugs in addition to the already listed 800 essential drugs in 2013 to improve the affordability of these medicines but the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers in a recent circular issued just before Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi's visit to the United States had asked the NPPA to decap it once again. According to official figures, there are 4.1 crore diabetes, 4.7 crore coronary heart disease, 22 lakh TB, 11 lakh cancer and 25 lakh HIV/AIDS patients in the country.While most of the US based drug companies are happy with the recent rise of their share prices on the BSE Sensex, the experts feel that it will largely hit the empanelled patients in the country. "While most of these medicines are already out of reach from the poor patients, the move will largely hit the patient empanelled with various organizations like the ESI etc who are till date enjoying free and unlimited supply of these medicines. But with such steep rise in these life saving drugs, the empanelled bodies may take them off from their supply list and leave their super-specialty patients in lurch," said Dr Yogesh Arora, a leading medical oncologist from Ludhiana. He also revealed that although there may be numerous variants of a particular medicine available in the market but the patients always prefers the original salt of the recommended medicine. The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers (MC&F) had, on May 30, 2013, delegated powers to the NPPA to regulate the prices of life-saving drugs. This resulted in a significant reduction in prices of a broad spectrum of drugs. The Modi government extended this regulation to even lifesaving drugs for cancer, HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and asthma. The government later withdrew these guidelines, ahead of Modi's visit to the US. Despite repeated attempts, VK Subburaj who took over the charge of Secretary, Pharma at the MC&F on Tuesday itself could not be contacted for comments. |
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Suspects rounded up by police
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, October 9 Deputy Superintendent of Police, Phillaur, Parvinder Singh, said the police had been conducting thorough investigation into the case and yes, some suspect were also rounded up by the police for questioning. "We have rounded up suspect and they are being questioned to inquire their role behind murder. We are hopeful that murder case will be cracked in a day or two," said the DSP. The deceased, Gurdev Kaur (80), was brutally murdered at her residence on October 6. She was alone at home when hacked to death. "Murder had come to the fore when a girl, Pinki, who used to sleep at her house during the night, had arrived at the deceased's house. After she found the woman lying in a pool of blood, she raised an alarm and informed the other villagers. The whole house was also ransacked by the miscreants which was a signal that the woman was murdered to loot cash and valuables," said the police.
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Robbers made an attempt to loot cash from the ATM of Punjab National Bank at Basti Danishmanda late last night.
Ramesh Gosai, manager of the bank, said the ATM was closed at 8.30 last night. The miscreants, after breaking open the shutter’s lock, entered the ATM and attempted to loot cash. They had also disconnected the CCTV cameras. The cameras couldn’t do recording after 2.20 am, he added.
If the state government did not move them to category A from C soon, they will burn the copies of the notification issued by the government on October 13. This was declared by the 50,000 member-strong Master Cadre Union, Punjab, along with various other unions of the state at a meeting held here today.
Jalandhar, October 9