15112024-LT-01.qxd 11/15/2024 12:14 AM Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana tribune AFTER SC ORDER, POLL ACTIVITIES GAIN PACE IN DIST LAAPATAA LADIES TALKS ABOUT WOMEN’S FREEDOM: KIRAN FREEDOM AT MIDNIGHT STREAMS FROM TODAY Aspiring candidates can be seen rushing to party offices, meeting senior leaders. P2 The film has been produced by Aamir Khan Productions, Kindling Pictures and Jio Studios. P4 Actors Sidhant Gupta, Arif Zakaria share how they faced the challenges that came with the script. P4 » » » FORECAST FOG/MIST MAX 23°C | MIN 17°C YESTERDAY MAX 23°C | MIN 17°C SUNSET FRIDAY 5.26 PM SUNRISE SATURDAY 6:48 AM FRIDAY | 15 NOVEMBER 2024 | LUDHIANA parks: 98% crop purchased, ~3,042-cr paid to farmers EncroachmentoftoMC PAC serves notice PADDY PROCUREMENT Nitin Jain Tribune News Service Ludhiana, November 14 The paddy procurement has entered its final leg with almost 98 per cent of the total arrival already been purchased, over 73 per cent lifted and the farmers paid Rs 3,042-crore for their crop in Ludhiana till Wednesday, official figures have revealed. With almost 81 per cent of the total procured paddy already lifted from across 146 mandis (grain markets), including 38 temporary yards, under 13 market committees in the district during the past 72 hours, the lifting of crop has also picked up pace. However, the private purchase of paddy has failed to pick up with the commission agents (arhtiyas) procuring mere 0.02 per cent of the total procured foodgrains despite the government’s assurance to increase their commission. Claiming that the situation has finally streamlined during the past ten days, the District Food and Supplies Controller (DFSC), Geeta Bishambu told The Tribune here on Thursday that lifting has picked up pace with over 73 per cent of the total procured paddy already been cleared from the mandis. She said the district admin- With paddy procurement entering its final leg, purchase and lifting of grains picked up pace in Ludhiana on Thursday. TRIBUNE PHOTO: HIMANSHU MAHAJAN TELLING NUMBERS PARMAL PADDY Arrival: Procurement: Unsold: Lifted: Unlifted: Payment due within 48 hours 14,10,597.1 13,78,333 32,264.1 10,10,411.6 3,67,921.4 3,025.4 Payment made: MSP: BASMATI RICE Arrival: Procured: Price range: STORAGE Total rice mills: 3,041.7 2,320 40,905 40,905 2,670-3,145 Applied for storage: 493 Allotted stocks: 492 Agreements done: 492 AREA Total area: 2,56,500 Harvested: 2,44,491 497 (SOURCE: DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION, ARRIVAL, PROCUREMENT, LIFTING FIGURES IN MT, AREA IN HECTARES, PAYMENTS IN RUPEES CRORE, PRICE IN RUPEES, FIGURES TILL NOVEMBER 13) istration in close coordination with the Food and Civil Supplies department and the four state-owned procure- United by faith ment agencies had been ensuring swift procurement and before time payments to the farmers for their pro- TRIBUNE PHOTO: HIMANSHU MAHAJAN cured stocks. “We have been able to purchase almost 98 per cent of the total paddy that had Illegal liquor recovered arrived in our mandis so far and have paid up to 101 per cent of the payments due to the peasants,” Geeta shared. She disclosed that 13,78,333 MT of the total arrived 14,10,597.1 MT paddy had been procured in the district while Rs 3,041.7 crore had already been paid to the farmers, which was almost 101 per cent of Rs 3,025.4 crore payment due within 48 hours of purchase. On the lifting front, 10.10,411.6 MT of the procured 13,78,333 MT paddy had been lifted from the mandis, which comprised 80.7 per cent of 12,52,169 MT stocks due to be lifted within the last 72 hours of the purchase. On Wednesday, 37,738.7 MT of more paddy arrived in the mandis, while 33,284.1 MT was purchased and 46,833 MT was lifted during the day. Barring 341.5 MT paddy purchased by the arhtiyas, the rest of the stocks had been procured by Pungrain, Markfed, Punsup, and Punjab State Warehousing Corporation (PSWC). However, the Central agency Food Corporation of India (FCI) has also not purchased a single grain in the district. The DFSC detailed that of the total 497 rice shellers in the district, 493 had applied for storage, 492 had already been allotted stocks after they had signed the agreements for storage and milling of procured paddy. “Since the godowns have been gradually cleared of the milled rice of the previous season, the lifting has finally picked up pace,” she added. Besides the parmal variety of paddy, 40,905 MT of basmati rice had also arrived and fully procured in the district till Wednesday. The growers had fetched as high as Rs 3,145 per quintal and as low as Rs 2,670 per quintal for the basmati so far. On the harvesting front, 2,44,491 hectares, which accounted for 95.3 per cent of the total 2,56,500 hectares of area under paddy in the district, had been harvested so far. According to the data compiled by the Agriculture department, Ludhiana block had harvested 12,408 of 13,200 hectares of paddy, Mangat 29,664 of 30,900 hectares, Pakhowal 20,516 of 22,300 hectares, Sudhar 27,744 of 28,900 hectares, Jagraon 29,735 of 31,300 hectares, Sidhwan Bet 31,635 of 33,300 hectares, Khanna 19,306 of 19,600 hectares, Doraha 17,766 of 18,900 hectares, Dehlon 19,095 of 20,100 hectares, Samrala 13,677 of 14,100 hectares, and Machhiwara had reaped 22,944 of total 23,900 hectares area under paddy till date. Tribune News Service Ludhiana, November 14 The Public Action Committee (PAC) has served notice to the Principal Secretary and the Municipal Corporation (MC) after it came to know that MC as well as other unknown persons have encroached upon land area of 36 park/greenbelts of Haibowal Dairy Complex, situated at Hambran Road Ludhiana by construction of hot mix plant, dumping of aggregates for the plant, installation of mobile tower, illegal constructions in park areas which is an act against directions of Supreme Court and National Green Tribunal as well as various environment laws. “The Municipal Corporation is illegally running hot mix plant in the park within the area surrounded by Residential and Dairy complex by going against well settled guidelines laid by the Central Pollution Control Board and despite serving notice on the PPCB and the MC by the association, the Hot Mix Plant has not been shifted from the location and is adding major pollution to the already deteriorated environment of Ludhiana,” said Dr Amandeep Singh Bains, member of the PAC. Further Kapil Arora, anoth- Devotees take part in a nagar kirtan to mark Guru Nanak Dev’s Parkash Utsav in Ludhiana. Tribune News Service Ludhiana, November 14 The police have registered cases against four persons in different police stations over alleged provocative and objectionable social media posts. The cases have been registered under Sections 196 (1) (2), 353 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The cases were registered on the basis of complaint filed by the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic), who is also the nodal officer of the social media team. Jatin Bansal, Nodal Officer, said the persons were under scanner and their accounts were watched by the social media wing of the Police Department and the accounts showed provocative posts, and objec- Under-billing to claim higher GST refund divides industry Shivani Bhakoo Tribune News Service Ludhiana, November 14 Many exporters in Punjab are cheating the government by raising fraudulent invoices, which involves bogus billing, hawala and under-invoicing for goods from China. Levelling these allegations, the Federation of Punjab and Small Industries Association (FOPSIA) maintains that such practices bring disgrace to the entire industry. At the same time, other industrialists feel that because of a few black sheep in the industry, not all exporters should be held accountable and if there are specific cases, these should be brought on record. Badish Jindal, president, FOPSIA, has alleged that many exporters in Punjab were duping the government by giving wrong information about their exports. “These exporters, in most cases, overstate the value of the products. This fraud is the biggest in auto parts as it attracts 28 per cent GST. Many auto part Many exporters have allegedly set up their own offices in many African and Asian countries. FILE PHOTO products are exported by such exporters at much higher prices than the actual cost to claim higher GST refunds (under HSN code 8708 at higher prices),” said Jindal. Similarly, he added that exporters who export fasteners sell their products under 8708 HSN code instead of 7318 HSN code and get 28 per cent GST back from the govern- ment instead of 18 per cent. This is the situation for many exporters of cycle parts. Many bicycle parts exporters are selling their products under 8708 code instead of 8714 code and are getting 28 per cent GST back instead of 12 per cent. In cycle parts, many products such as chain, crank, tyres, rims, brakes and balls are shown as auto parts to get higher claims. These exporters have set up their own offices in many African and Asian countries. Most of these importing countries have very low or nil import duty. “These exporters then ship on higher rates and bring back the extra money to India by paying 2 per cent to the hawala operators,” alleged Jindal. At the same time, SC Ralhan, former president of FIEO (Federation of Indian Export Organisations) said that this cannot be a “generalised statement”. There could be isolated cases like this but not all exporters from different industrial sectors are into this kind of unethical practice, he said and asked, ”How can this practice continue right under the nose of the Customs Department?” Jindal also mentioned that in many cases, such payments are forwarded to China against imports to bring the material from China on under-invoicing. To manage the cost of higher value, these c m y b er member said that as per directions of Supreme Court as well as NGT, the purpose of parks cannot be changed but despite knowing the facts, the MC itself has encroached upon and changed the purpose of parks of Haibowal Dairy Complex resulting into major damage to the environment. Further, some parks might have been encroached upon by private persons, which is a matter of investigation and must be cleared without any delay. Keeping in view of directions of the Supreme Court and the NGT, the NGO along with its members served notice with demand of immediate restitution of all the parks of Haibowal Dairy Complex on Hambran Road, Ludhiana. 4 booked for objectionable social media posts Tribune News Service Ludhiana, November 14 The police arrested Gurcharan Singh, a resident near Dhuri Lines, Azad Nagar Model Town and recovered 27 bottles of illegal liquor from him. The police was patrolling in the area when near Jama Masjid, Shahpur Road, Gurcharan was stopped by the police on suspicion. The police recovered bottles of liquor from him. In another incident, the police have arrested — Nirmal Singh and Mandeep Kaur — for smuggling illegal liquor. The police recovered 104 bottles of Punjab Commander Black and 24 bottles of Punjab Dollar XXX Rum from them. A hot-mix plant operating on a park at Haibowal dairy complex. exporters buy the bogus bills by paying 5 per cent to 7 per cent GST and claim 28 per cent from the government. These exporters sell the material to the buyers on heavy discounts and earn huge profit from GST refunds and other export benefits. President, United Cycle & Parts Manufacturing Association (UCPMA) Harsimarjit Singh Lucky, however, said that they were not facing any such issues in the bicycle industry and exporters were normal. “Rather, we are facing trouble in imports in this particular segment. The products coming from China are coming with underinvoicing, which cannot be matched with those manufactured here. Because of this under-billing practice in imports, the country and the department in particular are facing huge revenue losses. And this is being done by a large number of industrialists in connivance with a few officials of the Customs Department,” said Lucky. DCP (Investigation) Shubham Aggarwal (C) briefs the media. tionable speeches etc. Against Hindu leader Chandrakant Chaddha, the case has been registered at police division number 1. Chaddha, a resident of Vikas Nagar, Clocktower, is the main spokesperson for Shiv Sena. He has posted objec- tionable comments on his Facebook account. In another case, Bhanu Pratap was booked by the Police Division number 3. Pratap is a resident of Nim Wali Gali, Ikbal Ganj. Police Division number 4 have registered a case against Parveen Dang, president, Hindu Sikh Jagriti Sena here. Dang is a resident near Gandhi Nagar. In another case, Haibowal police have registered a case under Rohit Sahni, a resident of Star Colony, Haibowal for regularly posting objectionable comments on the social media. These persons were continuously monitored by the social media team of the police for several days. DCP (Investigation) Shubham Aggarwal, while briefing the media, said in previous times too, cases were registered against persons who made provocative and hate speeches on their social media accounts. He said the police won’t permit such hate speeches which disturb the peace in society. Post meeting with officials, bizmen hopeful of respite Shivani Bhakoo Tribune News Service Ludhiana, November 14 Industrialists in Punjab, who otherwise feel “neglected” as no benefits are given to them by the AAP government ever since it came to the power, are hopeful to get their issues resolved as an important meeting of the leading industrial associations was held with the higher-ups at Chandigarh last evening. The industrialists maintained that they were given an assurance by the government representatives that the problems will be resolved to provide respite to the industry. Former CII president Rahul Ahuja said the meeting held at Chandigarh was ‘fruitful’ as Punjab Industry Minister, MP Sanjeev Arora and other senior officials listened to the problems. The officials were told about the issues being faced by the plot holders under the PSIEC in the focal points. “We told them yet again to bring One-Time Settlement Policy for the plot holders as these enhancement notices had created panic among the industrialists. If there will be a OTS policy, industrialists will avail it and be free from any objections raised by the department. Secondly, if we are mortgaging our plots/property, we are asked to pay .25 per cent to the government, which actually becomes a huge amount, and we are suffering in that. Suppose some other bank offers us lesser rate of interest, we can not avail the benefit as we will again pay .25 per cent mortgage amount to the government,” said Ahuja. FICO president Gurmit Singh Kular said a few years back, the PSIEC issued a notice of Rs 249 per square yard to Focal Point Phase VIII allottees, which was finally settled at Rs 24 per square yard. Then, again the PSIEC issued another notice and demanded Rs 474 per square yard from Focal point Phase VIII plot holders. The PSIEC have already taken 100 per cent anticipatory enhancement. Now with inclusions of interest & other charges, the cost has reached around Rs 2,500 per square yard, which is totally unjustified and unviable. “We requested the state government that the penal interest should be immediately waived off as interest @ 21% is being charged when the rate of interest of any bank is not over 7 per cent. It was requested to release an Amnesty Scheme for the Plot holders of Phase VIII, to settle the issue once and for all during the meeting with the officials,” said Kular. Notably, the issue of PSIEC plot holders has raised several times by the industry but to no avail. The industry hopes that it gets resolved to provide respite to the industry.