Mandi, September 21
Under the Consumers’ Protection Act, 1986 the District Consumers’ Redressal Forum, (DCRF) is to decide a complaint in 90 days, but there over 200 cases in Mandi district and 100 cases in Kulu district pending before the Forum that more than six to seven months, even a year to get justice for complainants.

Complainants told The Tribune that the President of the DCRF sits three days at Kulu and three days at Mandi. “The cases fixed for next hearings get dates even after two months the forum’s objective of providing justice speedily is being defeated, they rued.

Complainants revealed that the consumer courts at times are not held at all, when the president is on leave, that, in turn delays the matter for months together. “The poor people are the highest sufferers as they come long distances, pay hefty fees to the lawyers and end up paying more than what they get as compensation after spending months together”, they added.

Even lawyers have a vested interest in delaying the cases as some of them charge fees according to a hearing, complainants rued. “More the sittings or dates the better for the lawyers”, they said. In many cases complainants end up paying more amount as fee to court, to lawyer and other expenses incurred in the process than what he gets as compensation awarded by the forum”, they pointed out.

Since a complainant has to pay Rs 100 as court fee to file a complaint in the forum from last year, this discourages from filing the complaint. “Earlier it was free of cost. Small-time complainants can not even thing of filing the case because of court fee and lawyers charges and delay in disposing of the cases, said the lawyers.

President, DCRF, D C Chaudhary said that the Mandi and Kulu and Lahaul-Spiti have a common judicial officer. “Most of the cases pending in Mandi and Kulu relate to 2005 to 2004 respectively, while Lahaul has a single case pending. “We give each party a chance to present his side of story, hence the delay. In over 80 percent of cases the complainants get compensation”, he commented.

The DCRF members said that frivolous complaints have stopped being lodged at the forum ever since the court fee of Rs. 100 has been charged from the complainants since last year. “The quality of the litigation has also improved”, they claimed. They informed that most cases relate to insurance compensation, over-billing of telephone and electricity bills and other consumer durables. Two years ago the Forum was flooded with over 1000 cases, but most of the complaints related to the Golden Forests fraud, which have been referred to the Supreme Court, revealed the sources.

Presenting their case the members of the Mandi District Bar Association said that some of them take the cases free of cost, but when they go to the sub-divisional level for hearing they charge what they spend on fuel and other expenses. “The delays result as service of cases takes time as it is a legal matter after all”, they said.

Reckong Peo: Even though women in the tribal areas of Kinnaur are the ‘pivot’ of the family- unit bearing major responsibilities in generating income and looking after the well being of their families, their personal health problems are hardly ever taken care off by the spouses or the health authorities.

The most common problem that these tribal women face right from their birth is anaemia.

Surprisingly, the iron deficiency prevails in an area with iron-rich fruit production, particularly the apple.

According to a recent study— ‘Prevalence of anaemia among the adolescent girls- A study of district Kinnaur’, conducted by the Population Research Centre of Himachal Pradesh University; 29 per cent of adolescent girls suffer from acute anaemia with their haemoglobin level less than nine grams. 63 per cent of them have haemoglobin level ranging between 9.1 grams to 11.9 grams. Only nine per cent of the adolescent girls have more than the normal 12 grams hemoglobin level.

The main reasons for the deficiency are menstrual disorders, low immunity, low intake of iron-rich foods and unhygienic living conditions, both at school as well the house. In most schools that the study team visited to interview 1,437 girls; the facilities for drinking water, toilets, lighting and the general condition of the surroundings were unclean and below average.

According to another study— ‘Prevalence of anaemia among pregnant women- A study of district Kinnaur’, also conducted by the Population Research Centre of Himachal Pradesh University, over 22 per cent of the pregnant women suffer from acute anaemia while more than two-thirds have moderate iron deficiency. Only five per cent of the pregnant women come under the appreciable hemoglobin level of 11 grams and above. 

Shimla, September 21
His act of unusual courage finally won him recognition when he was awarded gold medal in the physical bravery category of the 14th Godfrey Phillips Bravery Awards for the state presented here today.

Rajinder Kumar Sen , a head cashier with the Central Bank of India, grappled with armed robbers to foil their bid to loot the Khadrala branch in Rohru on July 3, 2003. He showed great presence of mind and risked his life to prevent the robbery. Three robbers armed with khukris came to his house at night and asked him to open the shutter and strong room of the bank. He followed their instructions and opened the shutter, stepped inside but before the robbers could enter he again pulled it down. The robbers, however, lifted the shutter after a struggle and entered the bank. Mr Sen grappled with them and in the process was seriously injured. One of his ears was chopped off. In the meantime a car passed by and as he shouted for help the robbers fled.

Sulekha Devi of Jol village in Kangra who fought a leopard and snatched her five-year-old son from its jaws in March 2003, was presented the silver medal for extraordinary courage and bravery, while Mr Rudesh Chand of Hamirpur was awarded the bronze medal for saving the life of two women who were stranded on an elevated patch in the Beas during flash floods in July 2002.

Ravi Kumar and Jitender Kumar, both from Chamba, were jointly awarded the bronze medal for rescuing two tourists of Ludhiana from the Ravi.

Besides Sanjeev Attri, a science teacher at government high school, Mogi Chand (Nahan), who has been relentlessly fighting against the menace of drug abuse, was conferred the silver medal for selfless social service and Mr Relu Ram Thakur, senior instructor at regional water sports centre, Pong Dam, was presented a special award for outstanding contribution in the promotion of adventure sports.

Shimla, September 21
The Himachal Cabinet today approved the state power policy and decided to reorganise the Education Department to create a separate Directorate for Elementary Education.

As per the power policy preference will be given to Himachalis in allotment of hydroelectric projects up to 5 MW capacity, which will be handled by the HIMURJA. The projects with capacity ranging from between 5 MW and 100 MW will be awarded via the MoU route and those with more than 100 MW capacity will be assigned through global competitive bidding. The state will have 30 per cent equity participation in projects with more than 100 MW capacity.

The meeting presided over by the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, cancelled 22 hydroelectric projects and decided to give six months extension to 32 projects with a stipulation that if the companies failed to start work during the period the project would automatically stand cancelled.

The Directorate of Elementary Education will take care of Class I to VIII, while Class IX to XII will be under the Directorate of Secondary Education. Committees will be set up for division of staff and infrastructure.

In order to generate more revenue from the sale of turpentine oil and Rosin from the factories of the state Forest Corporation at Nahan and Bilaspur, it decided to introduce a system of calling tenders on bi-monthly basis. The rate will be applicable for the in between period. Further, 60 per cent of the turpentine oil in terms of volume will be reserved for local units.

For Rosin the same procedure will be followed and the reserve of 40 per cent for local units will continue. The system will be tried for one year and reviewed thereafter.

The Cabinet approved transportation subsidy on apple packaging material to the fruit growers in the flood affected areas of Kinnaur district. Many areas of Kinnaur have been cut off from the rest of the country.

It also approved amendment to the state Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, 1972, to the effect that special road tax and penalty shall not be levied and charged from on Stage Carriage Operators, whose buses are impounded for the non-payment of tax. The amendment shall have retrospective effect from January 1, 2000, the date from which the special road tax was imposed.

Shimla, September 21
The Himachal Pradesh Government will launch the seven-year Rural Health Mission in the state next month to provide efficient and adequate health infrastructure at the village level.

This was stated by Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, who is also the chairperson of the state health mission, while presiding over the first meeting of the mission here yesterday. He said it would bring a revolution in the health sector. A sum of Rs 51.40 crore would be spent during current financial year under the mission.

The Chief Minister said Himachal Pradesh had been included in the mission which aimed at a strategic integration of all ongoing vertical health and family welfare programmes in the entire country. He said the rural hospital network would be made more curative with medical care measurable through the Indian Public Health Standards. Village health plans would be developed in consultation with village health, water and sanitation committees while district plans would focus on local needs involving stakeholders.

He said the mission had a target to bring down the leprosy prevalence rate to less than 0.37 per 10 thousand, maintain 85 per cent cure rate of TB by upgrading all community health centres to Indian Public Health Standards and utilisation of first referral units (FRUs) from less than 20 per cent to 75 per cent by the end of the mission. He stressed upon the need for strengthening the TB Sanatorium Mandodhar which would be made capable of catering to the health needs of the TB patients, while special facilities would be created to look after the chronic cases.

Mr Virbhadra Singh said Rs 20 lakh would be spent on strengthening infrastructure in the FRUs in the first year. Specialised services would be made available to the patients in all FRUs. He said 24-hour services would be made available to the people in selected 50 primary health centres (PHCs), out of which at least four PHCs would be made functional in every district.

Chamba, September 21
To give boost to the Animal cross-breeding programme in Himachal Pradesh, the Centre has approved a grant of Rs 12.75 crore to the HP Livestock Development Board.

In an official information received here today, Mr Harsh Mahajan, Animal Husbandry and Urban Development Minister, said that the first two instalments amounting to Rs 5.90 crore had been released.

The artificial insemination facilities had been provided in 19 new veterinary institutions, while 354 artificial insemination centres had been converted into mobile insemination centres, Mr Mahajan added.

Mr Mahajan stated that for ensuring farmers’ participation under the livestock development programme, the District Rural Development Agency had launched a Rs 4.34-crore for Chamba district, Rs 5.30-crore project for Mandi district Rs 5.87-crore project for Hamirpur district and Rs 13.10-crore project for Kangra district. Similar projects in Kullu, Bilaspur, Una and Sirmaur districts were also coming up soon in the state, Mr Mahajan said.

Keeping in view the significance of animal husbandry in agrarian economy, the state government was taking useful steps to reinforce it.