Jalandhar, August 6
Aiming to provide relief to power consumers of the state, the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has constituted a number of committees at different levels to settle differences and disputes arising between the board and the consumers.

The existing set up of the various dispute settlement committees will be replaced by a new consumer complaints handling procedure, devised by the PSEB in accordance with the Punjab State Electricity Regulation Commission guidelines.

“All consumer complaints pertaining to billing, metering, interruption of power supply, voltage regulation, load shedding etc. would be dealt with as per a specified and streamlined procedure by the new committees. The committees will have three levels,” Superintending Engineer (Operation Circle), Jalandhar, B.S. Sekhon, said.

The zonal-level Dispute Settlement Committee, to be chaired by the Chief Engineer of the distribution zone concerned, will have one officer from the accounts and finance cadre, and another from commercial wing as members.

In addition, an industry representative of and a consumer organisation representative will be nominated as members. This committee will have the jurisdiction to dispose off complaints involving pecuniary disputes of amount exceeding Rs two lakh in each case.

Similarly, the circle-level Dispute Settlement Committee, which will be chaired by the Superintending Engineer of the circle concerned, will have, as members, one officer from the accounts and the finance cadre and one from the PSEB’s commercial wing and a person nominated from the industry.

This committee will be able to dispose off complaints involving an amount between Rs 50,000 and Rs two lakh.

The divisional-level Dispute Settlement Committee, to be chaired by the Additional Superintending Engineer or Senior XEN of distribution division concerned would have one member each from accounts, finance and one nominated by the Chairman of the division-level committee.

Each of the committees will be served by a Nodal Officer.

The aggrieved consumer can submit his complaint to the Nodal Officer of the appropriate committee and then get his complaint registered by depositing 20 per cent of the disputed amount.

Apart from this, the affected consumer will have the right to appeal to a higher committee, in case he is not satisfied with the decision of the committee concerned.

Jalandhar, August 6
An armed group clash after a local Congress rally here today left one youth, Tarun Gandhi, seriously injure. The victim claimed to be the state president of the “Rahul Gandhi Federation”.

The incident occurred near Gulab Vatika.

Tarun Gandhi, a resident of Gopal Nagar, was allegedly attacked by some unidentified persons with sharp-edged weapons when he was returning from the Congress’s Mass Contact Programme. He received multiple injuries and has been admitted to the Civil Hospital.

The victim alleged that he was attacked by a group of nine youngsters as soon as he left the rally venue in the afternoon.

On the other hand, reports said that after the alleged attack on him, Tarun Gandhi retaliated and attacked one person, identified as one Chahal.

Police sources said the group of attackers could be from the Sports College here. No case has yet been registered, as the police said it was still investigating into the incident.

Phagwara, August 6
An 11-year-old student of a school here had a narrow escape when a ceiling fan fell on him while he was sitting in his classroom on Saturday.

According to sources, Varun Goyal, a Class V student of the Mahavir Jain Model Senior Secondary School situated on the Hoshiarpur road, was admitted in the Civil Hospital with deep cuts on the cheeks and the forearm.

Rakesh Goyal, father of the victim, said the school management had never been serious about the security of the students.

“The fan had been giving some kind of sound for the last four days, but the school management never cared to get it corrected,” he said.

Varun said the fan fell on him during his Hindi period. He added that other students ran for safety.

Rakesh Goyal immediately brought the matter to the notice of the Phagwara SDM Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal who then visited the school.

The SDM assured that a thorough enquiry would be conducted against the school management in this context.

When the president of the school management, Mr Kimti Lal Jain, was contacted, said he felt sorry that the incident had occurred, but refused to comment any further. 

Kapurthala/ Phagwara, August 6
A BAMS doctor, Sukhwinder Singh (24), a resident of Sharhai village in Ferozepore district, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan at a private nursing home at Talwandi Chaudhria village in Sultanpur Lodhi.

A sweeper found the doctor’s body hanging yesterday morning. She immediately informed Dr Jagdeep Singh, the owner of Satnam Hospital.

The police sent the body to the Civil Hospital for postmortem.

In Phagwara too, a 60-year-old unidentified man committed suicide by jumping before a goods train at the Mauli village railway crossing here today.

Railway authorities took the body in its possession and sent it to the Civil Hospital for post mortem.

Phagwara, August 6
The Phagwara police today arrested a person on the charges of tampering with the passport of his deceased brother here. According to City police station SHO Gurwinder Singh, one Paramjit Singh, a resident of Khilwara Gate, had allegedly tampered with the photograph of his real brother Baldev Singh who had expired in May, 2005, with that of his photograph.

He allegedly affixed his photograph by removing his brother’s photograph on the passport and sent it to Jalandhar passport office for renewal. — TNS

Phagwara, August 6
The Phagwara police here today booked a man for allegedly assaulting a female safai karamchari of the Phagwara Nagar Council.

As per sources, Darshna (50), a resident of Palahi Gate, resisted the move of a resident of the area not to throw the defecated material in the open drain in the locality. This reportedly led to an altercation between the two.

In the meantime, another resident of the area, identified as Shiloo, allegedly used abusive language against the female safai karamchari and assaulted her while she was on duty.

Bibi Surjit Kaur, an office-bearer of the Phagwara Nagar Council Safai Karamchari Union, said the said youth not only dragged her by the hair but also banged her head against the door of his house.

She demanded that a case of assault be registered against the youth. On the other hand, family members of Shiloo denied the allegations. A case has been registered under Sections 353, 332 and 186.