01042024-ATR-01.qxd 3/31/2024 11:36 PM Page 1 c m y b Amritsar tribune FORECAST PARTLY CLOUDY INTERNATIONAL WRESTLER INJURED IN CLASH GOMEZ SHARES GLIMPSES OF HER ‘DATE NIGHT’ WITH SISTER SONU SOOD CALLS FATEH MOST FULFILLING EXPERIENCE Kartar Singh and his four associates were injured during a property related dispute at Bhikhiwind. P2 Singer and actor Selena Gomez had a fun night out with her younger sister Grace. P4 Sonu is all geared up for upcoming film Fateh, which he described as ‘an action that will raise the bars.’ P4 » » MAX 29°C | MIN 16°C YESTERDAY MAX 28°C | MIN 18°C SUNSET MONDAY 6.50 PM SUNRISE TUESDAY 6:17 AM » MONDAY | 1 APRIL 2024 | AMRITSAR MC collects ~37cr property tax this fiscal, fails to meet target On last day of the financial year, civic body collects ~61 lakh Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 31 The property tax wing of Municipal Corporation collected Rs 37.91 crore tax in the 2023-24 financial year that ended today. Despite last day of the financial year being Sunday, the Municipal Corporation today collected Rs 61 lakh tax. The amount was Rs 4.35 crore more than the collection of property tax in the last financial year. The MC had collected a total property tax of Rs 33.56 crore in the last fiscal. This fiscal, 1.21 lakh Property Tax Returns (PTR) were filed. However, the Municipal Corporation had set a target of Rs 45 crore Christians celebrate Easter with fervour, gaiety Residents line up to pay property tax on the last day of this fiscal at MC office in Amritsar on Sunday PHOTO: VISHAL KUMAR property tax this fiscal, but failed to achieve it. As per surveys, there were more than 3.5 lakh properties in the city. However, the state Powercom employees stage protest Our Correspondent Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 31 Christians of Amritsar today celebrated Easter, the festival commemorating the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, with utmost zeal. Prayers for universal peace and harmony were also offered on this occasion by the community members led by the Diocese of Amritsar, Church of North India (CNI). A dawn service was held at Christian cemetery in Putlighar, followed by sunrise services and morning services in the churches of DoA, CNI, including Christ Church Cathedral, Ram Bagh, St Paul’s Church, Court Road and Epiphany Church, Chheharta. Talking about the significance of Easter, Rev Dr PK Samantaroy, Bishop, DoA, CNI said mankind came under the judgment of death after they sinned in the Garden of Eden by eating the forbidden fruit. “Easter is a celebration of the Resurrection of Lord Jesus Christ. Besides that, it is also a celebration of death that leads believers to eternal life in heaven through faith in Him. Death is not the end for a believer, but a new life with God Almighty in eternity,” he said. government exempted the property tax to houses less than 125 square yard, but as per an estimate there would be around 2.5 lakh taxable properties in the city. The property tax wing of MC focuses on the commercial establishments that are major contributors. A large section of residential property owners reluctant to pay the tax even it is nominal. “The MC has prepared the data of commercial units and issued thousands of sealing notices to the commercial units. Even the field staff sealed properties to press the defaulters. But there is no such action on residential properties. The number of tax payer residents have been increasing with the awareness. This year, 1.21 lakh owners paid property tax,” said an MC official. Powercom staff during the protest at Gandhi Municipal Park on Sunday. Tarn Taran, March 31 Employees of powercom affiliated with the PSEB Employees Joint Forum and Bijli Mulazam Ekata Manch organised a rally to press for their demands at Gandhi Municipal Park here on Sunday. Union leaders such as Gurpreet Singh Gandiwind, Lakhwant Singh Deol, Gurb- hej Singh Dhillon condemned the state government, saying they have decided to oppose all the candidates of the ruling AAP in the coming elections. They also decided to hold protest rallies in villages, town, cities etc during the election to oppose the AAP candidates against the indifferent attitude for not acceding the current demands of the employees. PK Jaiswar Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 31 A monetary dispute took an ugly turn when several armed people barged into a house and shot at a man in Ajnala’s Fattewal Khurd village, the police said today. The victim, 38-year-old Gurpreet Singh, was a tractor dealer and the accused had procured a tractor that was later found to be defective. The accused were demanding return of their money. The accused were identified as Sheru of Ibban Khurd village, Lovepreet Singh and three unknown people. All of them has been absconding since the incident took place on Saturday, while the Ajnala police registered an attempt to murder and Arms Act case. Gurpreet told to the police that he helped Darshan Singh alias Bhola of Ibban Khurd buy a tractor worth Rs 5 lakh around two months ago from Sukhdev Singh and Sunil Kumar of Narot Jaimal Singh in Pathankot. He said the tractor was later found to be defective and they had returned the tractor. He said Sunil Kumar returned Rs 1.5 lakh to Darshan and but was dilly dallying in returning the remaining amount. He said Darshan’s son Sheru was threatening him for getting the remaining amount returned. He said yesterday when he was going to deposit his licensed .12 bore rifle to police station in view of model code of conduct, when the accused came in a car and entered his house. He said Sheru, who was carrying a pistol, started abusing him and snatched his rifle. They fired two shots from the rifle at him, Gurpreet said, adding that they missed one shot while another hit his right arm and he fell down. The accused fled the scene leaving the rifle behind. He was rushed to a hospital. Ajnala police station SHO Harpal Singh said the accused were absconding and raids were on to nab them. No medicines in hospitals: Staff union to CM Amritsar, March 31 Employees Welfare Association at Civil Hospital here has appealed the chief minister to look into the issue of non-availability of medicines at hospitals. In a letter to the CM, the association said he had made a statement that a certain kind of medicines would be given free to patients at all government hospitals after January 26. The association stated even after two months, these medicines were not available at the hospitals. Association leader Rakesh Sharma said, “The government had also issued funds for purchase of medicines, but it is not clear why these were not made available to the public.” —TNS Newly married woman dies days after ‘falling’ from second floor Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 31 A newly married woman has died days after allegedly falling from the second floor of the residential quarters of Beas Hospital here, the police said on Sunday. The deceased identified as Kavita Kumari (26), who hailed from Kangra in Himachal Pradesh, suffered critical head injuries due to the fall on March 26 Husband arrested for ‘dowry death’ Kavita Kumari and succumbed to her injuries at a private hospital here on Saturday. On a complaint filed by the victim’s father Bhagwan Das, the police have arrested her husband Rajat Kumar and his mother Lalita Devi - both residents of Kangra - on charges of dowry death. Bhagwan Das told the police that his daughter got married to Rajat Kumar around five months ago. She was a staff nurse at Dera Beas Hospital. He said five days ago, he got a call from Rajat that his daughter had fallen from the second floor and was critically injured. He alleged that Rajat used to harass her for dowry, and demanded money from them also. Sub-inspector Gurmit Singh of Beas Police station said a case was lodged under Section 304-B of the IPC, and both the accused were arrested. Garnering Sikh votes holds key for Babbu in Gurdaspur INDIA VOTES 2024 Ravi Dhaliwal Tribune News Service Pathankot, March 31 Dark horse Dinesh Singh Babbu, a three-time MLA from Sujanpur, bagged the BJP ticket for Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency. Babbu, a Rajput, was backed by Union minister Rajnath Singh. He also served as Dy Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha in 2017 and a Chief Parliamentary Secretary (Food and Civil Supplies) in the Parkash Singh Badal-led government from 2012 till 2017. In the 2012 Assembly polls, he won by the highest margin recorded in Punjab. He had beaten Naresh Puri of the Congress by 26,000 votes. He quelled a challenge put up by a couple of strong contenders such as Kavita Khanna, the wife of four-time MP and film icon Vinod Khanna, sitting BJP Pathankot MLA Ashwani Sharma and RSS backed Batala industrialist Paramjit Singh Gill. Babbu's immediate task will be to draw a plan on how to garner the Sikh vote. Out of the nine assembly seats in Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat, the Sikh community holds sway in five Dera Baba Nanak, Gurdaspur, Qadian, Batala and Fatehgarh Churian. In the 2019 election, incumbent MP Sunny Deol took massive leads from the Hindu dominated seats of Bhoa, Pathankot, Dinanagar and Sujanpur. However, when the ballots for the Sikh seats were counted, he lost from Dera Baba Nanak and Fatehgarh Dinesh Singh Babbu Churian by 20,000 votes each. In Batala, he lost by 956 votes. He won the Qadian and Gurdaspur seats, but only by wafer-thin margins. Party leaders said Babbu would have to take special care of these seats otherwise these may well turn out to be his proverbial Achilles' heel. The names of Kavita Khanna and Ashwani Sharma were topping the list of contenders with Babbu seen as the proverbial dark horse. However, a senior Union Minister was said to Huge quantity of illicit liquor, lahan seized; 6 held PK Jaiswar Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 31 Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Amritsar rural police today conducted a cordon and search operation (CASO) in Lopoke, Bhindisaida and Mattewal police station areas and recovered huge quantity of illicit liquor and lahan. The police also registered 7 FIRs and arrested six people during the operation. Among those arrested were identified as Arshdeep Singh of Chak Mishri Khan village, Hardeep Singh of Lalia village, Hardeep Singh of Kohali village, Tota Singh of Kolowal village, Sikander Singh of Kolowal village, Dilbagh Singh of Bhindi Saida and Monetary dispute leads to firing in Ajnala, one injured Police arrest bootlegers during an operation in Amritsar on Sunday. TRIBUNE PHOTO Kevwal Singh of Mattewal. The police confiscated a total of 108 liters of illicit liquor and 1,860 kg lahan besides busting three illegal stills during the operation. Earlier too, huge quantity of illicit liquor and lahan were seized during CASO operation on March 22 in different parts of the rural belt. The police had arrested five bootleggers with 3,300kg lahan and 420 liters of illicit liquor. Manufacturing of illicit liquor has been a menace. Lopoke remained a hot bed for manufacturing illicit liquor with huge seizures were made by the police in the past. The seizure was made on the heels of the hooch tragedy that had killed around 21 persons in Sangrur district. c m y b have put his foot down in his favour. He is known for his soft spoken, affable approach towards the public. Sources said what tilted the scales in his favour was the 3 lakh strong Rajput vote distributed in the Assembly seats of Bhoa, Pathankot, Sujanpur, Dinanagar and in some villages of Kahnuwan block of the Qadian assembly seat. "He is bound to do well in these areas. If he gets some support from the five Sikh seats, he has the potential to topple the best of candidates from other parties. One of his foremost tasks will be to minimise the negativity generated by ex-MP Sunny Deol," said a Delhi-based BJP leader. Babbu said he was happy that his party had reposed its confidence in him. "I am thankful to my seniors in Delhi and colleagues in the constituency for having backed Report sale of illegal liquor, DC urges residents Amritsar, March 31 The district administration has asked residents to report sale and consumption of illegal liquor in their areas so that action could be taken against those playing with life of people. District election officercum-deputy commissioner Ghansham Thori said residents can report about these anti-social elements at mobile number 79738-67446. He said the identity of the callers would be kept secret. The district administration had earlier seized huge quantities of liquor and lahan from various areas. —TNS my candidature," he said. During his three stints as legislator from Sujanpur, he has been responsible for bringing in the lift irrigation system in the 50-odd villages of the water-starved Dhar block, considered to be one of the most under-developed blocks of Punjab. Dhar forms a part of the Sujanpur assembly seat. He has also brought in several development initiatives like a co-education government college and a litchi research project. The BJP has become the first of all recognised parties to have announced its candidate. The Congress, SAD and AAP were still in the process of identifying their respective nominees. This means they are busy separating the chaff from the grain while the BJP has hit the ground running. This, observers claim, will give a definite edge to the BJP . Participants during a march in Amritsar on Sunday. TRIBUNE PHOTO Drive to spread awareness on differently abled voters Amritsar, March 31 The district administration organised a candle march here today to spread awareness about participation of differently abled voters in the ensuing Lok Sabha election. The march started from Maharaja Ranjit Singh statue on Heritage Street and passed through Dr BR Ambedkar Chowk, and ended at Shaheed Madan Lal Dhingra Chowk. District Social Security Officer Meena Devi appealed to the differently abled voters to exercise their constitutional right during the Lok Sabha election scheduled to be held here on June 1. A team of volunteers will also be deployed at all booth to provide necessary assistance to disabled voters during the voting process. —TNS Counting losses A farmer looks at wheat crop flattened by rain coupled with strong winds at Bhani Gilla village in Amritsar on Sunday. TRIBUNE PHOTO: VISHAL KUMAR
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