22032023-LT-01.qxd 22-03-2023 00:25 Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana tribune OVER ~7 CRORE COLLECTED FROM TRAFFIC CHALLANS RAHUL DEV TO BE SEEN AS INSPECTOR HOODA IN HUNTER TURKISH SHOWS, FILMS MAKE HUGE IMPACT ON AUDIENCE Of total 1.35 lakh wrong parking challans, 85K four-wheelers & 50K two-wheelers were towed away. P2 Actor Rahul Dev will be seen as a Haryanvi cop, Inspector Hooda, in action thriller Hunter. P3 Turkish film on Netflix, 10 Days of a Good Man, has caught the fancy of many avid watchers in India. P4 » » FORECAST GENERALLY CLOUDY MAX 25°C | MIN 14°C YESTERDAY MAX 25°C | MIN 13°C SUNSET WEDNESDAY 6.39 PM SUNRISE THURSDAY 6:27 AM » WEDNESDAY | 22 MARCH 2023 | LUDHIANA Civic body’s Budget meeting on March 24 One-fourth of central smart city funds remain unspent Ludhiana got maximum amount of ~392 crore under SCM Cong councillors protest against govt, MC officials Say projects not started in their wards due to political pressure Tribune News Service Nitin Jain Work in progress to upgrade Leisure Valley under Smart City Mission in Ludhiana on Tuesday. WILL ENSURE EARLY EXECUTION ❝We will ensure early execution of the SCM to develop Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jalandhar as smart cities. With the Centre and state government committed to give matching grants, projects will be completed on a priority basis to provide world-class facilities to residents. Sanjeev Arora, RS MP ❞ 296.5 crore by Ludhiana, Rs 288.13 crore by Amritsar and Rs 196 crore by Jalandhar. In this way, a sum of Rs 95.5 crore, which accounted for 24.36 per cent of the total Central funds released so far had remained unspent in Ludhiana, Rs 62.87 crore, which was 17.91 per cent, had not been spent in Amritsar, and Rs 98 crore, which accounted for 33.33 per cent of the total Central grant, had remained unused in Jalandhar. The unspent amount in all three smart cities in making in Punjab was Rs 256.37 crore, which was 24.72 per TRIBUNE PHOTO: HIMANSHU MAHAJAN Ludhiana, March 21 The MC’s Budget meeting would be held on March 24, said Mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu. The civic body is planning to present an estimated Budget of Rs 1,043.46 crore for the upcoming financial year 2023-24. Of the total Budget, the MC is expecting to get an income of Rs 610 crore from the GST share, Rs 115 crore from property tax, Rs 90 crore as municipal tax on electricity and Rs 12.10 crore from advertisements during the upcoming financial year. However, a final decision regarding the estimated Budget would be taken during the meeting. Notably, the term of the MC’s current House would end on March 25. Sandhu said the House meeting had been fixed for March 24. The Municpal Corporation’s estimated annual Budget for 2023-24 would be presented in the meeting. The sanctioned Budget for 2022-23 was Rs 988.13 crore but it was to be revised to Rs 1,000.8 crore. The civic body had generated an income of Rs 520.56 crore from April 1, 2022, to January 31, 2023, and it was expecting to generate Rs 480.24 crore more by March 31, 2023. Ludhiana, March 21 Almost one-fourth of the Central funds released so far for developing Ludhiana as a smart city were lying unspent, the Centre has confirmed. Of the three smart cities under development in the state, Ludhiana has got the maximum central funds of Rs 392 crore, with an equal share from the state government since its selection among 100 cities under the Smart City Mission in 2015, the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (HUA) has revealed. This information was furnished by Union Minister of State for HUA, Kaushal Kishore, in reply to a question by Rajya Sabha MP from Ludhiana Sanjeev Arora. Arora had asked about details of the unspent balance of smart city funds from the Central Government in Punjab and the time by which this balance amount will be disbursed. In response, the Minister of State for HUA submitted in Parliament on Monday that a total of Rs 1,037 crore had been released by the Union Government under the Smart City Mission (SCM) for development of Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jalandhar as smart cities. Of these, Ludhiana had got the maximum of Rs 392 crore, Amritsar Rs 351 crore and Jalandhar Rs 294 crore. He further disclosed that the Central funds utilised by the smart cities so far included Rs TRIBUNE PHOTO: HIMANSHU MAHAJAN Tribune News Service Tribune News Service Paramilitary jawans stand guard in Ludhiana on Tuesday. Cops form special team to keep tabs on ‘troublemakers’ Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Ludhiana, March 21 Amid the ongoing crackdown on pro-Khalistan group ‘ Waris Punjab De’, the Ludhiana police have formed a special team to keep tabs on ‘troublemakers’ who can resort to protest, blockades or instigating violence. Already, four close aides of ‘ Waris Punjab De’ chief Amritpal Singh were arrested by the Ludhiana Commissionerate on Sunday night under preventive action under Sections 107 and 51 of the CrPC and were sent to judicial custody. Ludhiana Commissioner of Police (CP) Mandeep Singh Sidhu said police teams were keeping tabs over some elements who could create trouble in the wake of the ongoing operation against Amritpal and the police would take immediate action if any conspiracy to disturb law and order was being hatched. “Our cyber cell is also keeping hawk eyes over elements who are posting content that may instigate violence or may encourage people to block roads in favour of Amritpal. I urge the people do not post such content as they may face legal action,” Sidhu said. The CP said the police had already started an awareness campaign on its official social media channels where people were being made aware about legal action they might face by posting fake news or anything that could instigate violence. “We advise you to stay away from rumour mongers and verify news before sharing on social media platforms,” he said. STATUS OF CENTRAL FUNDS Smart City Released Utilised Unspent Ludhiana ~392 ~296.5 ~95.5 Amritsar ~351 ~288.13 ~62.87 Jalandhar ~294 ~196 ~98 Total ~1,03 ~780.63 ~256.37 (SOURCE: UNION GOVERNMENT, AMOUNT IN CRORES TILL MARCH 20) cent of the total Rs 1,037 crore central grant released so far, while a sum of Rs 780.63 crore was utilised under the SCM in Punjab till date. “The funds under the SCM are, inter alia, released based on the matching share released by the state government/urban local body, satisfactory physical and financial progress, and reasonable utilisation of the central and state funds released to the respective smart city,” the Union MoS added. Ludhiana was among 100 cities in the country and three in the state, which was select- Man booked for sexually exploiting stepdaughter Ludhiana, March 21 The Sadar police yesterday registered a case against a man on the charges of raping his nine-year-old stepdaughter at Bachitar Nagar here. The suspect has been identified as Hardeep Singh. In this regard, a zero FIR was registered in Mohali which was later transferred to the Ludhiana police for further probe. The complainant told the police that in 2018, her daughter got married to the suspect. Since her daughter also had a girl child, so they both had been staying with him in Ludhiana. In 2022, she brought her daughter along to Mohali by following the official procedure. Recently, her granddaughter said her stepfather had been sexually harassing her and due to threats given by him, she could not garner courage to reveal the same. “I was shocked to hear that my granddaughter was sexually exploited by her stepfather. We also asked him but he refused to talk over the matter. Later, we brought the matter to the knowledge of the Mohali police and they, after recording the statement, registered a zero FIR at the Mohali police station under Section 376, IPC, and the POCSO Act. Since the crime has occurred in the jurisdiction of the Sadar police station in Ludhiana, the Sadar police after receiving the case file, has also registered a fresh FIR here,” the complainant said. SI Ashwani Kumar said raids were on to nab him. — TNS c m y b ed under the SCM to be developed as a smart city in the first round of the selection by the Union Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) in 2015. The industrial and business hub of the North is fast moving towards becoming a smart city as envisaged under the SCM of the Centre. As many as 43 projects worth Rs 146.88 crore had already been completed while 27 more projects costing Rs 783.12 crore had been put under execution and were at present under various stages of progress. continued on page 2 Ludhiana, March 21 The Congress councillors who are in majority in the current MC House staged a protest at the entrance of the MC’s Zone D office on Tuesday against the state government and the MC authorities for allegedly stopping development works such as construction of roads, development of parks, installation of water tube wells, etc, in their respective wards. District Congress Committee president Sanjay Talwar and some other leaders also joined the protest. They said the MC House term would end on March 25 but the development projects (under the councillor quota) were not being started in their respective wards due to the interference of leaders of the ruling party in the state. A protesting leader alleged that AAP MLAs want to inaugurate such projects after March 25 so that they could claim credit for the councillor quota works. Talwar alleged that the development works under the councillor quota had been stalled in the wards. Various development projects for which the work orders were issued during the regime of the previous Congress government had not been started at the ground level to date. He said the councillors went to meet MC Commissioner Shena Aggarwal today but she was unavailable at the office today. Earlier also, the councillors had met the Congress councillors stage a protest at the civic body’s Zone D office in Ludhiana on Tuesday. PHOTO: ASHWANI DHIMAN 3 CONTRACTORS GET NOTICES FOR DELAYING WORKS MC officials said the civic body was tightening the noose around contractors over the delay in the completion of works at the ground level. MC Commissioner Shena Aggarwal said it had recently put three contractors on notice for delaying development works. Commissioner but the matter was not resolved. “We demand that the development works in the wards must be started within two days. If these works are not started, we will plan a further strategy”, he said. Congress Councillors, including Senior Deputy Mayor Sham Sundar Malhotra, Baljinder Singh Bunty, Mamta Ashu, Dilraj Singh, Baljinder Kaur among several others participated in the protest. The councillors and other leaders present there condemned the performance of the AAP government and said corporation officials were working under political pressure due to which the people were forced to suffer. MC officials said the MC was tightening the noose around contractors over the delay in the completion of works at the ground level. MC Commissioner Shena Aggarwal said the civic body had recently put three contractors on notice for delaying the development works. A warning had also been issued to other contractors that strict action would be taken if they failed to complete the projects within the stipulated deadline, she said. Meanwhile, the MC officials said in the past three weeks only, the civic body had issued around 60 work orders for the construction of roads, parks, installation of tube wells, sewer lines, etc, at a cost of over Rs 20 crore. Regular efforts were being made to expedite the development works in the city.