Ludhiana, December 19
Alarmed by the abysmally low collection of service tax from beauty parlours and marriage palaces, the Central Excise Commissionerate has issued a warning to them against tax evasion.

The department noted that out of nearly 100 registered beauty parlours, barely 16 were paying service tax whereas in case of marriage palaces, against 193 registered ones, only 33 were paying the tax.

“We have asked them to be regular and avoid tax evasion. We would observe them in the forthcoming wedding season and in case they fail to come forward, they would have to face action,” commissioner A.K. Mehra said.

Department sources said brisk business and advertisements by beauty parlours in the city, particularly during the wedding season, had brought them in the limelight.

While the ones with a turnover of less than Rs 8 lakh annually are not required to pay the tax, the department found out that the turnover in most cases far exceeded the minimum limit.

According to the department, while marriage palaces charged in lakhs for a single party, and parlours were also doing brisk business, they resorted to under billing.

Dry cleaners have also caught the attention of the department and have been issued a warning.

Ludhiana, December 19
A demolition squad of the district administration today razed several structures at the the old courts complex and the judicial complex.

Chambers and stalls of several advocates, sale deed writers and typists were demolished by the squad.

Executive magistrate Paramjit Singh, who was supervising the operation, said the land had to be handed over to PUDA and hence, the administration was clearing everything.

All this is being done as the state government has decided to sell the prime land even as there have been protests from several quarters.

Ludhiana, December 19
Hit by the rising cost of the material required, plywood manufacturers of the state have decided to hike rates by 5 per cent. This is for the second time in the past six months that the plywood rates have been increased. Manufacturers said if urgent steps were not taken by the government for ensuring the smooth supply of wood and control on rising material cost, they would lose out on buyers in other states, to whom they were currently supplying plywood worth Rs 40 crore.

Over 100 manufacturing units in the state, including about 25 in the city, fear major cut in production.

“Last one year has been bad for us. Due to the shortage of poplar and other wood, rates have gone up by 20 per cent. Prices of formalin, a chemical for glue manufacturing, too have recorded a 20 per cent whereas face -cum-veneer rates have gone up by an equal proportion. The government has failed to control there prices due to which plywood manufacturers were left with no other option other than increasing the price. If steps are not taken the industry might have to resort to a major cut in production,” said Ashok Juneja of the Punjab plywood manufacturers association.

The increase of 5 per cent this time, said industrialists, is less in proportion to rise in the cost of raw material as buyers may turn to makers in other states. “We have major buyers in states like Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. However, if we affect a larger hike buyers would shift to other states.”

About 12.5 per cent VAT on plywood is also adding to the woes of this industry. “In states like Uttarakhand, Delhi and West Bengal, VAT is 4 per cent. As a result we are already fighting to meet stiff competition within the country. Steps need to be taken for increasing the supply of wood by encouraging farmers to grow it. If the government fails, the day is not far when this industry might have to face closure.”

Ludhiana, December 19
The State AIDS Control Society has finally woken up and provided joining letters to seven HIV patients who were recruited as outreach workers in August, but were awaiting appointment letters.

The action follows a news report in these columns some days ago, highlighting the plight of these workers. Not a single HIV patient had been appointed by the PSACS despite receiving Rs 7.32 crore under the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) project for 2006-2007. No money had been spent on the rehabilitation of 16,868 HIV positive people.

The president of the Punjab Networking for Positive People (PNPP), Mehar Singh, who had taken up the matter at various platforms, expressed satisfaction over the development.

He, however, criticised the Punjab AIDS Control Society for delay in appointing outreach staff. He said in spite of being selected as an outreach worker himself in the civil hospital, Jagraon, he was not given a joining letter.

Six other HIV patients had also met with the same treatment. Satinderjit Kaur is still waiting for the letter. “We will now take up her case. We will meet the authorities and find out what was the reason for the delay,” Mehar Singh said.

Jagjit Singh Mann from the PNPP said he had taken up her matter with the society and Satinderjit Kaur had already received a call to reach Mohali tomorrow.

“This is the state of affairs in the society. They do not even know why they are doing this to a person who is already suffering,” Mann said.

Ludhiana, December 19
A gang consisting of five women reportedly looted Rs 1 lakh and dress material from a cloth trader here this evening.

The incident took place at Khalsa Suit and Saree Centre. According to Kulwant Singh, owner of the shop, five women, who appeared to be from Nepal, entered his shop on the pretext of buying some dress material. Some of them asked for dress material and in the meantime, one of the accused took the entire amount from the safe and fled. The others hastened toward the exit, arousing suspicion.

He raised the alarm and shopkeepers managed to nab two of the accused. They were handed over to the police.

The district magistrate-cum-deputy commissioner, Sumer Singh Gurjar, has banned the throwing of garbage in the canal.

He said the Punjab and Haryana High Court had directed that a complete ban be imposed on the disposal of solid waste in the canal.

Ludhiana, December 19
A large number transporter raised slogans against a district transport officer in protest against the “harassment” faced by them. They had gathered outside the office for settling the challans as their vehicles were impounded by the DTO last night.

A large number of transporters, whose vehicles were impounded by the department, were not carrying the necessary documents. A few vehicles were challaned for overloading. A fine of Rs 3.5 lakh was imposed on 75 vehicles.

DTO Chander Gaind, when contacted, said a campaign was launched to fine errant transporters after receiving a lot of complaints against them. The transporters who were challaned gathered outside the office and raised slogans against the department. About 69 challans out of 75 have already been cleared, he added.

Ludhiana, December 19
The police continues to fish for the weapons, allegedly dumped by criminals or terrorists, in the Sidhwan canal especially on the banks between the Dugri and Jawaddi bridges.

Though police officials continue to claim that they were fishing for a bag that was reported missing by an NRI, sources reveal that the cops had got information that weapons had been dumped in the canal.

The sources said the police had got a few leads after a few alleged terrorists, who were recently arrested on charges of smuggling RDX into the state and trying to script an attack on a VIP, were interrogated.

Ludhiana, December 19
A 24-year-old girl,employed as a probationary officer with a local bank, allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself from a ceiling fan.

Indu, a resident of Delhi, was living alone in a rented apartment. She was found dead by residents of the area today. SHO Model Town Warryam Singh said the girl’s parents had finalised her marriage with a Delhi-based man where as she wanted to marry someone else.

Ludhiana, December 19
Recently there have been negative media reports about foreign doctors leaving the UK and returning to their homelands, mainly due to decreased job opportunities for them. This may be true to some extent, but at the same time, it is also a fact that dental graduates are in great demand all over Britain as there is a shortage of dentists in general practice.

British patients are traveling to neighbouring countries such as Spain and France for routine dental treatment, as they are finding difficulty in registering with a dental practitioner in the UK.

Stating this, UK-based dental graduate Dr Vinisha Sharma observed that every year many BDS graduates pass out from many dental colleges that are spread across India and majority of them find job opportunities very thin on the ground. “Those successful to open up their own private practices are fortunate, but for many others, the process of finding a satisfactory job is quite demeaning, after having spent five years in dental colleges.”

For this reason, Dr Vinisha, having worked for a number of years as a post graduate in the field of Oral Maxillofacial Surgery in UK, pointed out that fresh BDS graduates in India are now looking to spread their wings and go abroad to seek better opportunities and maybe gain new found experiences in other countries. “The UK offers dentists a very good educational opportunity through post graduate courses, professional exams and job opportunities in specialised fields.”

In the process of setting up a consultancy here for dental professionals, seeking overseas careers, she said from a monetary aspect, the high value of dentists in the UK is reflected by the high salaries that dental surgeons are able to earn. That is true, only if people choose to go into the right speciality and clear the appropriate exams.

Khanna, December 19
The local unit of the BJP is all set to lay claim on maximum number of seats for the forthcoming municipal council’s elections. It is believed that the party would urge the BJP and SAD high commands to let the BJP leaders contest municipal elections on 20 out of 27 seats.

The council is at present dominated by the Congress councilors. There are 20 out of 27 councillors who either belong to the Congress or are actively supporting it. Seven councillors belong to the SAD-BJP alliance. This civic body has long been dominated by the Congress. Former PPCC chief Shamsher Singh Dullo had also been one of its presidents.

Local BJP president Rajneesh Bedi said logically the party now had a strong hold in most of the civic wards. 

Indian Railways is the largest biggest in Asia and second largest in the world. However, there are thousands of trains i.e. EMUs, Demus, including locals, which do not even have the basic facilities of toilet and water in all compartments. This causes uneasiness and embarrassment to the passengers.

In the lack of these facilities, sometimes the passengers have to de-board the train, leaving their luggage without any protection.

In the larger interest of passengers, ministry of railways should make necessary modifications by providing basic facilities at least in the compartments of those trains, whose distance of onward or inward journey comes out to be more than an hour. After all, passengers pay for the journey and it is their right to avail proper facilities.

Jai Gopal Kusla, Ludhiana

Readers are invited to mail letters (not more than 200 words) at "ludhiana@tribunemail.com" or post the same to The Tribune, 1, 2 Improvement Trust Building, Badaur House, Clock Tower, Ludhiana.

Ludhiana, December 19
Dr Surinder Saggar, a scientist, working on green-house gas emissions and global warming delivered a lecture on “Climate change-some recent developments in science and politics” in an interaction programme organised in the Farmers’ Service Centre of PAU by the department of agrometeorology here yesterday.

He emphasized that we must understand the warning signs, express concerns and register our response to the dangers of global warming and green house gas emissions. He shared that the global temperature had shown an increase over the last century through warming of the climate system.

He elaborated research efforts made by his team on farm measurement models and farm scale decision support systems but expressed that there were so many holes in the system.

PAU vice-chancellor, Dr Manjit Singh Kang, thanked Dr Saggar for sharing his thoughts on a major global problem and said that inter-disciplinary teams of talented scientists should pore over this concern and try to evolve strategies to mitigate the ill effects. He said the university was undertaking research on development of varieties of major crops to tolerate the climatic aberrations and on the models for weather prediction.

Dr G.S. Bains, head of the department, extended his welcome to the chief speaker and other participants.

Ludhiana, December 19
Department of soils, Punjab Agricultural University, organised a 3-week training course on “Impact of intensive agriculture on environment quality”, under the auspices of the centre of advanced studies in soil science.

The course, which was attended by scientists from six states, concluded yesterday. Dr Viraj Beri, director of the centre and head of the department of soils, said since its inception, the centre has organised 20 training courses on various aspects of soil science to as many as 340 scientists from different state agricultural universities and ICAR institutes.

Dr R.K. Mahay, registrar, PAU, was the chief guest on the concluding day. While distributing certificates to the participating scientists, he laid emphasis on the need of management of natural resources in relation to sustainable agriculture, underlining the significance of the theme of the training.

He exhorted the participants to make use of knowledge they acquired through interaction with experts in the training for reorienting the research and teaching programmes at their respective places.

Dr I.M. Chhibba, course coordinator, said 51 lectures by eminent scientists from the faculty of soils and many other departments at PAU were arranged to cover various aspects related to impact of agriculture intensification on environmental quality. A compendium of the lectures was also brought out and distributed to the participants.

Another soil scientist Dr D.K. Bembi, proposed his vote of thanks to the chief guest, members and participants.

Ludhiana, December 19
Although, the University Grants Commission has tried to start vocational courses at higher education level by introducing add-on courses, these have not received encouraging response from students’ community.

Above all, Panjab University has failed to declare the results of these courses on time. Enquires reveal that the students are reluctant to opt for such courses. These being extra courses other than the elective subjects, students have to devote more time on studies and this at times affects their studies.

The UGC has started about 20 add-on courses. These were started with an objective to give self-employment opportunities to undergraduate students.

Being UGC sponsored, these courses are valid throughout the country. Almost all colleges are introducing these courses in order to make students independent. Even then the strength of students enrolled under these courses is not very large. Though this trend is gaining momentum but still it will take some time to make students realise the importance of such courses.

Ludhiana, December 19
Management trainers and consultants, Dr Manisha Chaudhary and Sandeep Chaudhary, stressed on the proper understanding of one’s basic nature in order to develop leadership qualities at a lecture on “Leadership and Spirituality- the Connect” conducted by the Ludhiana Management Association (LMA) here yesterday evening.

Addressing the gathering, Manisha Chaudhary said spirituality was not only being religious, it was directly related to one’s own self essence. Giving Mahatma Gandhi’s example, she said, he followed that essence of non-violence in himself throughout life and his actions were strongly based on that essence which attracted millions of people toward him.

Sandeep Chaudhary explained that the leadership was not about position, power and authority. “True leaders follow their intrinsic values and never change these irrespective of the circumstances they come across, set examples with strong fundamentals and prove to be successful.”

He said leadership was an ability to see what could not be seen with naked eyes, which meant that a leader had a deeper understanding of issues. The trainers pointed out that once spirituality was connected with leadership, performance was bound to improve.

Anil Kumar, president, LMA, in his remarks said all actions had four dimensions body, intellect, mind and spirit, which were required to be connected together for performing well.

K.N.S. Kang, general secretary of the association, was among others present on the occasion.

Ludhiana, December 19
Prof Ravi Inder Singh of the department of mechanical and production engineering, Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana, presented a paper at the first international conference on “Advances in energy research” at IIT, Mumbai.

He has already presented and published a number of research papers in international conferences and journals. College principal Dr H.K. Grewal and department head Dr Sehajpal Singh congratulated Prof Ravi Inder Singh for his achievement.

The aim of the conference was to provide a platform for researchers, academics and industry to discuss recent research results and identify future directions for R & D in the energy sector. Various issues like increasing demand of energy and day by day depletion of fossil fuels in India were discussed. The use of non-conventional sources to generate electricity and impact of burning fossil fuel on environment was also discussed.

As many as 50 participants from other countries were also present at the conference.

Ludhiana, December 19
With the voting for the annual elections of the District Bar Association (DBA) scheduled to be held tomorrow, the candidates are trying hard to woo the voters for the last time.

They have left no stone unturned for ensuring their victory.

There is a tough contest between K.R. Sikri, Parupkar Singh Ghumman and Parveen Talwar for the post of the next president of the District Bar Association.

Returning officer S.K.Pathak and assistant returning officer Darshan Gupta said the voting would start at 9.30 am and end at 4.30 pm.

There would no lunch break during this time. About 1,449 voters would decide the fate of 23 contestants for various posts.

Young lawyers may influence the result. In the last couple of years more than 500 lawyers had joined and were going to cast their votes tomorrow. During the campaign almost every candidate concentrated on wooing the young lawyers.

In the past few days, a few contestants organised lunch and late night parties to please the voters. 

Ludhiana, December 19
Sacred Heart Convent School, Sarabha Nagar, Ludhiana, bagged third poistion in the boy’s u-14 years section of the 8th National CBSE Badminton Championship held at Devi Ahilya Unversity, Indore, recently. The championship was conducted by Shri Gujrati Samaj AMN English Medium School, Indore.

In the match to decide third position, Antarpreet Singh and Puneetinder Singh, representing Sacred Heart Convent School, got the better of Guneet Singh and Aditya Chopra of Apeejay School, Jalandhar, in straight sets.

Antarpreet Singh faced a little challenge from his opponent Guneet Singh whom he outplayed 21-11, 21-14 while Puneetinder Singh overpowered Aditya Chopra 21-16, 21-18 to help their school to finish at the third place.

Earlier, in the semifinals, Sacred Heart Convent School, Ludhiana, team waged a spirited battle against Delhi Public School, Vishakhapatnam, before going down 1-2.

In the individual category, Antarpreet Singh made his presence felt by winning silver medal. In the semifinal, Antarpreet came out triumphant over B.Pranav of Bhawans Vidya Mandir School, Kochi, 21-15, 21-14 and in the final, he fought valiantly before losing it 15-21, 18-21 against D. Mahendra of Delhi Public School, Vishakhapatnam.

Ludhiana, December 19
After boys from Saraswati Modern School, Hambran Road, made their presence felt at a few cricket tournaments, the school authorities decided to lay a pitch for further improving their performance. Priyanka Mehta, headmistress, said besides the cricket, a basketball court, an indoor badminton hall and a track had been laid for children to practise.

The school basketball team had finished runners up in the boy’s under-14 years section in the zonal tournament organised by the Punjab education department this year, while in the under-17 year’s section, the team secured the second position last year. As girl students also fared well, the school would train their cricket for the tournament to be organised next year, she added.