Amritsar, August 30
Now the people from rural belts would not have to make rounds of the Civil Surgeon office for birth and deaths certificates. The responsibility of registering the births and deaths in villages and issuing of respective certificates has been transferred from the Panchayat Secretary Department to Medical Officers (working in district hospitals, subdivisional hospitals, community health centres and primary health centres), besides multipurpose health workers (female), auxiliary nursing midwives (ANMs) working in that particular areas.

If no Medical Officer is posted in the health institution concerned, the pharmacist or any other paramedics could be authorised to perform these duties.

The decision in this regard was taken during a meeting with the Governor of Punjab and notification was issued by Satish Chandra, Principal Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, to all Civil Surgeons-cum-District Registrar of Births and Deaths and Deputy Commissioners with copies to all Principal Secretaries besides other authorities. The decision would be implemented from the September 1.

Dr Chandanjit Singh Kondal, Civil Surgeon here, said, “The decision was taken only to make the process of issuing birth and death certificates hassle free for the residents of the villages who used to make rounds of the Civil Surgeon office and complete various formalities which sometimes took a number of days.”

“The simple reason for shifting this responsibility to ANMs and Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers is because they remained in direct contact with the people at ground level. Hence, they are the best suited persons for the job,” he added.

The ASHA workers would act as informers to report births, deaths and still births occurring within their respective jurisdiction in rural areas to ANMs, who would register the same with them.

Meanwhile, the ANMs were being imparted training at the Civil Surgeon office in this regard.

Nawanshahr, August 30
Holding officials of the local branch of Indian Bank guilty of not discharging their duty properly while rejecting the loan application of Sunil Mehan, a commission agent of local Dana Mandi, on flimsy, baseless and irrelevant reasons, consequently causing harassment, financial loss and demoralisation to a young and budding entrepreneur, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, in a decision, has directed the erring bank officials to pay a compensation of Rs 30,000 and legal costs of Rs 5,000 to the complainant.

Sunil Mehan, proprietor of Mehan Trading Co, in his complaint lodged with the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum had stated that in May, 2008, the Branch Manager of the local Indian Bank had approached him with a proposal for advancing a loan. Consequently he got a current account ( No. 803609736 ) opened with the bank and later an application for loan was submitted and he had to spend Rs 10,000 on processing fee of the loan application.

Besides, a huge amount was spent on getting a shop on rent for starting the business, but the bank not only caused mental harassment by causing inordinate delay in sanctioning the loan, but also rejected his loan application by citing flimsy, baseless and irrelevant reasons in the loan rejection letter, dated December 12, 2008, which was made available to him on January 15, 2009. Due to it, he not only underwent mental agony, but also suffered financial loss. Moreover, another local bank sanctioned loan to him on the basis of the documents on which Indian Bank had raised objections.

Indian Bank, while defending itself stated that the bank was well within its right and jurisdiction to grant or refuse loan to any person. The loan application was rejected on the basis of the legal opinion sought by the bank branch with regard to the property documents submitted by the applicant. As per the legal opinion, the applicant was the attorney holder of the property of Kailash Mehan but had no power to borrow loan from the bank or any other institution.

Besides, the applicant had also availed himself of a loan from the bank and his past track record was not satisfactory and daughter-in-law and grandson of Kailash Mehan approached the bank branch and brought into the notice of the bank that the property in question was disputed one as there were many co-owners of the property. They even alleged that the power of attorney, dated January 13, was a forged one. Keeping in view the above facts, the bank got suspicious and decided not to sanction loan.

But the complaint, while challenging the basis of rejecting his loan application, said no evidence or cross-examination of the allegedly contesting co-owners of the property in question was placed on record.

Tarn Taran, August 30
The workers of the state’s five closed sugar cooperative mills have threatened to lodge protest during Chief Minister’s visit to the district on September 5 if their salary of the past 28 months was not realesed with immediate effect.

The workers under the banner of the Punjab State Sugar Mills Karamchari Dal, an employee organisation pro to the ruling SAD, in a memorandum submitted with the district administration served this warning.

The demands of the sugar mills workers included adjusting them in other departments in case the state Government was in no mood to restart the mills facing closure since the last more than 10 years.

The employees have also been demanding for the merging their 50 per cent dearness allowance in their basic pay according to the recommendations of the pay commission report.

Bikramjit Singh Sakhira, Jalwinder Singh and Ashwani Agnihotri, senior office bearers of the organization, told besides local Cooperative Sugar Mills, Sherona, the five sugar mills facing closure in the state were of Zira, Patiala, Faridkot and Jagraon.

The leaders said they were not being paid their monthly salary due to which they were facing acute financial crisis.

Amritsar, August 30
Seeking formation of the Farmers Debt Relief Commission Act on the pattern of the Kerala Government in order to remove the grievances of the farmers leading to rising trend of suicides, the Punjab Kisan Sabha today decided to launch a month-long march for waiving of huge debt of the farmers. ‘Karja Mukti Jatha March’ would commence from September 1 during which rallies would be carried out in as many as 500 villages all over the state.

Stating this, sabha general secretary Lehmbar Singh Taggad, talking to mediapersons said he said only a few number of farmers get the benefit of debt waiver given by the Union Government. He said those farmers who remained devoid of the benefit, should be granted financial relief package of Rs 1 lakh.

The sabha leader also demanded Rs five lakh as compensation to the families of farmers who committed suicide due to financial liabilities to banks and commission agents besides the government should return the money on behalf of the farmers who failed to repay their debts. The interest rates of the debts from banks and other government financial institutions should be brought down to 4 per cent, he added. — TNS

Jalandhar, August 30
A Banga resident was crushed to death under a vehicle owned by the Punjab Powercom at Badding village on the Jalandhar-Phagwara road early this morning. Izaq John was riding a moped when a canter of the Powercom hit it leaving the rider dead on the spot.

The SHO, Rama Mandi police station, Surinder Kumar, said the canter driver, Ranjit Singh, was arrested for rash and negligent driving. The body was handed over to the family after postmortem at the Civil Hospital. Meanwhile, two police personnel were injured in a road accident involving a PCR vehicle and a scooter near Nakodar Chowk here today.