Amritsar, November 17
The Municipal Corporation (MC) is facing a tough time to recover house tax dues from the defaulters. As per official estimates, the MC is to recover over Rs 16.74 crore from around 10,000 house tax defaulters. It's a mammoth task to recover over Rs 11 crore due to dispute over the ownership of properties.

The reason being that majority of such properties have exchanged many hands and it gets difficult to locate the original allottees. Another cause of concern is that some cases are as old as two decades. “Over a period of time, several industrial clusters like the Batala road and Chheharta have got redundant with coming up of various colonies and residential complexes. Similarly, there are properties which have been owned by several social organisations and trusts, from whom the tax recovery is almost impossible,” said one of the MC officials.

At present, the MC has made an instant recovery target of Rs 4.5 crore.

Even as the MC Commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal has said repeatedly that implementation of property tax does not qualify the house tax defaulters to enjoy any immunity from paying their dues, yet the defaulters seldom paid any heed to it. With the introduction of property tax, the house tax realisation has suffered as the whole staff of house tax was absorbed in realisation of property tax, came into being w.e.f. April 1, 2013.

An official said the collection of house tax has been miniscule because the major chunks of taxes are standing against big units which owe mammoth house tax standing in the official books. Earlier, many had issued cheques against their house tax dues, but later these cheques got dishonoured. Substantial number of such cases is lying pending to be taken cognizance of.

Till May 31, no recovery could be made. However, after that, the recovery was streamlined. House tax in- charge superintendent Vishal Vadhawan admitted that the recovery was slow but the MC has started the process to expedite it in a rigorous manner.

“We have been directed by the MC Commissioner to restart the campaign of collecting house tax from the defaulters but there is a lukewarm response. Our instant target is nearing Rs 4.5 crore, out of which till date we have been able to recover Rs 1.70 crore. We aim to recover around Rs 2.8 crore in shorter period. The non-recoverable amount of Rs 11 crore could be gauged later,” he said. 

Amritsar, November 17
Amritsar Improvement Trust today earned Rs 30.83 crore from the sale of properties during the auction held on its premises.

Of the 65 properties up for sale, only 39 were sold. Majority of the commercial properties remained unsold. It shows continuous negative sentiment and a hitch to invest in commercial property among the buyers. Commercial plots normally come at a double and above cost from the residential properties.

However, trust chairman Sandeep Rishi differed and said he sensed a pooling approach among the bidders so he withdrew the commercial properties from the bidding.

The highest bid for a residential property was seen when a corner plot in the Trust's Scheme Number 61, popularly known as Anand Avenue, earned Rs 71,600 per square yard. The two bidders kept on increasing the amount for a 233.33 square yard plot, reserve price of which was kept at Rs 18,000 square yard. Other plots in the scheme went at Rs 29,900 and above per square yard.

The trust earned highest price from Ranjit Avenue block B as the minimum bid was at Rs 37,500 and maximum Rs 54,500 per square yard. There were five plots ranging between 100 square yard to 111.65 square yard at a reserve price for Rs 21,000 were on sale.

In D-block of the same scheme, trust sold off six commercial plots out of total 20. Its scheme in front of Guru Nank Dev Univeristy fetched it price between Rs 26,000 to Rs 28,700 per square yard. There were five plots of 250 square yard at a reserve price of Rs 10,800.

The 340-acre Bhai Gurdas Jee Nagar New Amritsar also received a good response from the customers. Its block A fetched between Rs 21,400 to Rs 24,000 and B-block was procured between Rs 27,100 to Rs 29,700 per square yard.

Amritsar, November 17
Following an assurance given by Punjab Cabinet Minister Bikram Singh Majithia, the agitating shopkeepers and residents of the Airport road today lifted their dharna and postponed their protest for the next five days.

Yesterday, they had threatened to permanently block the vehicular traffic on VIP road (Airport road) after they received no response from the state government. They were agitating against the fixing of iron grills on either side of the road dividers in order to create a separate lane for the VIP movements. However, the shopkeepers alleged that this would not only lessen the road width but also adversely hit the traders.

SAD councillor Amarpreet Singh Gumtala assured the people that Bikram Singh Majithia had promised to resolve the issue shortly and asked them to postpone the agitation by five days.

Following this, he offered juice to the shopkeepers who were sitting on chain hunger strike on the fourth day of the protest.

Amritsar, November 17
On the call given by the PCMS Specialist Doctors' Association, Punjab, the specialist doctors today boycotted services at Guru Nanak Dev Hospital and Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Civil Hospital here. However, they continued to give general and emergency services to the patients visiting the hospitals.

They were agitating against the indifferent attitude of the state government towards their demands. They were demanding a specialist cadre for them on lines of the Central Government.

Dr Khushbinder Singh, district president of the association, said they were forced to go on path of agitation as the government was not paying any heed to their demands.

"Higher qualification allowance given to only few specialist doctors should be given to all the PCMS doctors with post-graduation qualification irrespective of the date of acquiring degree and this benefit should be given from the date of acquiring post graduation qualification instead of June 2012. It should be increased to 50 per cent of their basic pay or 30 per cent of total emoluments," said Dr Kashmir Singh Sohal, state president of the association. Besides, other demands include renaming of non-practice allowance as special medical pay. They also sought revision of basic pay grade of doctors. Expressing anguish Dr Sohal said if the government failed to fulfill their demands immediately they would boycott the specialist work on November 29 and if the need be they would resort to complete stoppage of specialist work by specialist doctors in whole state and only Punjab government would be responsible for this.

Amritsar, November 17
Two persons were killed in separate road mishaps in the past 24 hours.

In the first instance, an elderly person identified as Ishwar Singh lost his life when a speedy motorcycle hit him at the Verka bypass road here. Jagjit Singh, son of the deceased, said that he along with his wife Kuldip Kaur and father Ishwar Singh was going to the Vallah side to attend bhog ceremony at a relative's house. He said they were walking on the roadside when a motorcycle (PB-02-CC-0740) being driven by Arjun Singh of the Rani Ka Bagh area, being driven at a high speed, lost control and hit his father. He suffered multiple injuries and was rushed to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. Following his complaint, a case was registered under Section 304-A and 279 of the IPC. Investigating Officer Jsaid efforts were on to arrest the culprit at large. In another incident, Tarsem Singh of the Baba Balak Nath Street near Model Town at Chheharta was crushed to death by a speedy truck near the old octroi near Guru Nanak Dev University. He said he along with his brother used to manufacture kite string near university. On Saturday night they were returning home after finishing their work. His brother returned to the working place to collect a bag that he had forgot outside a shop. When he did not come they went to place only to learn that he was hit by a truck. He was rushed to a private hospital where doctors declared him dead. A case has been registered. —TNS

Amritsar, November 17
Members of the SSA Non-Teaching Union today wore black badges to work as they were protesting against the alleged anti-employee policies of the state government.

District president of the union Vikas Kumar said the strike was aimed to expose the repeated backtracking of the state government on its assurances and promises of their regularisation. He recalled that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had promised to regularise the jobs of SSA non-teaching employees from March 31, 2014. However, the assurance again proved futile like earlier ones.

He said during a meeting with Education Minister Daljeet Singh Cheema and Director General of School Education GK Singh, officials had agreed to their demands but nothing had been done in this regard for the past two months. He said due to the attitude of the government towards their demands, the non-teaching staff was feeling cheated. “We are left with no other option but to protest once again,” he said.

He said if the government fails to take note of their protest, they would intensify their agitation. He claimed that their agitation would adversely impact the coalition partners SAD-BJP in the forthcoming municipal council elections.

Amritsar, November 17
There seem to be little ray of hope from the authorities' site, despite the protest by the residents living in the localities around the Bhagtanwala dump yard as their protest entered its 16th day today.

Residents who have been fighting against the administration, under the banner of Sanjhi Sangharsh Committee, have a solo demand of shifting the dump yard from its present location as it has been taking toll on their health. They also showed resentment that even as all political party leaders had come up to hear their grievances, Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora never bothered to take stock of the situation for once. The moot point is that the garbage lifting and its disposal mechanism is in a shambles in Amritsar.

Even as the answer to the problem is Solid Waste Management Plant to process the garbage and a proposal was mulled to set up this plant at Bhagtanwala only, but despite 'earnest' efforts by the Municipal Corporation, none of the six firms, who had applied in the pre-bid process, was readied to execute the plant.

However, the residents of the Bhagtanwala area had vehemently rejected the solid waste management proposal of the MC to be installed over there. Even the ground water in their localities has got contaminated due to garbage spillage causing serious diseases in the localities. They stated that the plant would further affect the environment of the area.

"The authorities have shown casual approach towards our cause stating that the localities around this dump yard at Bhagtanwala had cropped up afterwards which is quite untrue. I have document proof of property that was prepared way back in 70s, whereas this dump yard came up in 1993. I suggest Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora to desist from releasing such statements and at least make arrangement for anti-bacterial spray over the site on humanitarian grounds and provide medical aid to the ailing family members," said Sanjay Sharma, a local resident.

"The authorities have been sleeping while we have been losing our family members. We would not allow dumping of garbage here anymore. The MC should find some other place outside the city which should be far off from public habitation," said Nawal Chawla, another resident.

"The MC men burnt the garbage the smoke emanating from the dump caused serious respiratory problems. We resort to our agitation in a calm manner, but the authorities have turned a blind eye to our problem. If need be, we will come out on streets," said Jai Inder Singh, another resident.

"We have been approached by CPS Inderbir Bolaria who assured us that garbage would now no more be allowed to be dumped here. He has asked us for 15-day period to suppress the dump yard with sand. This may give us some relief from foul stench which continuously emanate from here," said Gurcharan Singh, another resident.

officialspeak
I am concerned about their plight but I didn't go there because the whole issue has been politicised. The garbage already dumped at the Bhagtanwala site cannot be shifted but we have already stopped dumping garbage over there. I invite them to come to my office and the issue can be resolved amicably by incorporating the services of the commissioner and the health officer.
Bakshi Ram Arora, MAYOR

Amritsar, November 17
A 21-day refresher course in disaster management was inaugurated at Academic Staff College of Guru Nanak Dev University today. As many as 25 teachers of diverse disciplines from various parts of India are participating in it.

Dr Rajiv Bhalla, Civil Surgeon, Amritsar, was the chief guest at the inaugural session. Dr Bhalla in his inaugural address lauded the endeavour of the Academic Staff College for organising such a course. "It is of paramount significance for the entire humanity at the moment. All of us need to be well trained, well prepared to handle the aftereffects of any calamity all the times," he said. He highlighted the role of survivors to work as a team to perform various challenging tasks like rescue, rehabilitation, provision of food, potable water, medicines etc. Prof Avinash Kaur Nagpal, Director, Academic Staff College, enlightened the participants on the aims and objectives of the Academic Staff Colleges, which were established following the New Education Policy, 1986." The main aim of the ASCs is to broaden the horizons of the teachers and to impart them latest pedagogical skills in addition to keeping them abreast with the latest advancements in the various disciplines," she said.

Amritsar, November 17
Seventeen students of the Amritsar College of Engineering and Technology (ACET) win laurels by bagging university positions in various streams.

Akshi Mahajan, Varinder Singh, Anshdeep Kaur, Ranjodhbir, Harinder Kaur Amanbir Singh, Nitin Verma, Palak Gupta, Aditi Mehta, Gopal Krishan Arora, Satinderpal Kaur, Jalpreet Kaur, Navjot kaur, Jyoti, Rohit Sobti and Rupinder Singh bagged top positions in the university.

ACET chairman Amit Sharma, director of finance Ragini Sharma, group director Dr Om Kumar Harsh and principal Dr VK Banga felicitated the toppers.

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