Jalandhar, March 1
It’s a classic example how red tape is not letting the relief reach the deserving.

It has been more than six months since the Jalandhar deputy commissioner received a compensation cheque to the tune of Rs 3.07 lakh from a Riyadh-based company to be disbursed to the legal heirs of Parveen Kumar, who died while on duty a year ago, but the family here is yet to receive the amount.

The delay is despite the fact that Kumar’s widow Asha Rani (49), her daughter Smita (26) and Puneet (15), residents of Sansarpur village, have been officially declared legal heirs of the former by SDM-1 after verification.

Asha Rani, who has no other source of income, says she has given several representations to the DC in this regard but every time she is told to fetch a legal heir certificate from the civil court. Interestingly, the district attorney has reportedly, in a letter to the DC, opined that collector Jalandhar was a competent authority for the issuing of certificate.

Now, the ministry of external affairs, in a recent communication, has asked the Punjab chief secretary to investigate the aggrieved party’s complaint against the DC and sent a report back. “Death compensation cases in Saudi Arabia have a limitation clause and are proceeded in a time-bound manner”, said the communiqué, while expressing urgency.

DC Ajeet Singh Pannu, however, said, “In a case pertaining to a foreign matter, it’s the civil court that has to issue the certificate. I have documents to prove that. The woman has been told to follow a proper procedure and I wonder why she cannot go to the court and ask for the certificate. It’s a simple procedure.”

Asha Rani said the cheque, received by the DC, is of the remaining dues and pending salary of her husband, who was working as a foreman with a road-construction company in Saudi Arabia. The woman says she urgently needs the legal heirship document so that the Indian embassy could pursue her case for obtaining the compensation of accidental death of her husband.

She even showed documents issued by the embassy attaché A P Bharathan offering to pursue her accidental death claim case.

Even the legal eagles in the city feel the victim’s family is suffering for no fault of theirs.

Says advocate KC Malhotra, while quoting a judgment of the national consumer forum dated July 24, 2006: “The parties should not be forced to take such a long, expensive and a tiresome route. If heirs of the deceased give consent on an affidavit on due identification and have no objection, then the bank should release the amount in favour of the complainant along with other heirs. A solution-cum-justice oriented approach is the need of the hour”.

Amritsar, March 1
Two motorcycle borne youths snatched the purse of an NRI woman near the Golden Temple Complex on Friday. The woman had an escape after she fell from a rickshaw while trying to foil the attempt as they dragged her to some distance after snatching the purse.

Narrating the incident, Kiran Bakshi, a resident of Canada, said her purse contained important documents, jewellery and cash worth Rs 1 lakh and was on her way to have dinner.

She said her husband, who initially thought she had fallen due to the rickshaw ramming with a motorcycle, chased the snatchers. However, taking a turn into a street, they disappeared. She received bruises on her left leg and shoulder.

The police immediately reached the site of the incident after hearing their cries but were unable to nab the culprits.

She said the police had registered the case. When contacted, SSP Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh first denied that any such incident had happened in the area but when apprised about the case registered in this regard, he said the victim was not an NRI. He then added the culprits would soon be nabbed.

Kiran alleged that the rickshaw puller could be involved in the incident as he stopped the rickshaw in front of a Pan shop and was talking to someone there. She said soon after the snatchers appeared and snatched the purse which was hidden under the shawl.

It is pertinent to mention here that earlier too an NRI woman had died while resisting the attempt of two motorcycle borne youths to snatch her purse near the posh Novelty Chowk in the holy city, a few weeks ago. 

Hoshiarpur, March 1
Reacting to the UPA’s budget, Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) leader Manu Sharma said the proposed decision of waiving loans of farmers was too late and insufficient.

He said a large number of farmers in the country had taken loans from private money lenders and arrangements should have been made to provide relief to them. Similarly, the rate of interest on farm loans should have been reduced to 4 per cent and farmers too should have been covered under the assured income insurance scheme.

Manu said no scheme or provision has been proposed to ensure fixed income to farmers and the recommendation for constituting farmers’ commission was a clear indicator that their future would remain the same.

He said, “After studying the proposed budget, it was clear that raising slab of exempted income to Rs 1.50 lakh would not be beneficial as the sixth Pay Commission report would become effective from this year and the proposed increase would practically have no meaning.

Jalandhar, March 1
Hailing the 10 per cent hike in defence budget for fiscal 2008-09, as announced by the union finance minister yesterday, the GOC of Vajra Corps said it would greatly help in modernisation of the forces.

Lt Gen SS Kumar was interacting with the mediapersons on the occasion of Raising Day of 59 Corps at Jalandhar cantonment, here on Saturday. Even as the officer said the wish list was too long, especially keeping in view the dynamic assessments, he added that the budget announcements often helped in re-prioritising various initiatives that are queued up.

Reacting to the high expectations from the sixth pay panel, he said attractive package would definitely motivate youth to join forces. “Anyone joining the forces certainly makes an assessment as to what amount of compensation he would get in lieu of risk that he is taking,” he pointed out.

Over the issue of safety of women in the army in view of some incidents in the recent past, he said, “Women are absolutely safe in the forces. There is no question about that.” He even added that the women officers were now being posted in the strategic areas, including Rajouri, in the first two years of their postings which they were really enjoying.

Earlier, the GOC laid wreath at the war memorial in the memory of gallant soldiers. He interacted with retired army officers, JCOs and jawans. He also addressed a sainik sammelan.

Various activities, including trip to Jwala Ji temple, go-karting for special children of the Vajra Asha School, a station ‘Bara Khana’, military tattoo and mass band display, were organised over the week to marl the event.

Jalandhar, March 1
A local Hyundai car dealer has been booked on the charge of cheating a customer by allegedly selling an old car to him.

Confirming this, Sadar SHO SS Rai said the FIR was registered after a thorough inquiry into the complaint submitted by a Ferozepore resident by the SP.

Interestingly, the FIR was registered five months after the submission of the complaint to Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal in this regard.

The complainant Narendra Narang of Ferozepur told The Tribune that he had made a written complaint in September, last year, against the car dealer.

Narang alleged in the complaint that the local car dealer, Cosmo Hyundai, had sold him an old Hyundai Accent car, claiming it to be a new one, in 2005.

The complainant stated he came to know about the fraud when he tried to sell the car a year after purchasing it. He was surprised to learn that the model of the car was of 2005 as had been claimed by the local dealer.

Badal had forwarded the complaint to the SSP who in turn entrusted the inquiry to SP City I SK Kalia.

The allegations leveled in the complaint were found to be true in the inquiry. Following this, an FIR was registered against the owner of Cosmo Hyundai Praveen Ahuja, his wife Poonam, two employees Kokila and Mohit at the Sadar police station.