Amritsar, September 1
Help came for a young couple in their thirties, Rajbir Kaur and her husband Lakhwinder Singh, who were injured seriously in a road accident in the Amritsar cantonment area on Monday, when students of St Francis School gave their pocket money and teachers contributed money collected for the Teachers’ Day celebrations to the accident victims.

It was not for the first time that students and teachers of the school have performed the yeoman’s service towards the suffering humanity. Earlier, they had collected more than Rs 1.5 lakh for the heart surgery of an 11-year-old poor boy, Gurdev, suffering from congenital heart disease and almost the same amount for a 17-year-old girl, Mani. Mani was also in need of surgery for correction of a hole in her heart. Both Gurdev and Mani are healthy now and doing fine in their studies after their operations.

“Students and teachers collected more than Rs 16,000 today and gave it for the treatment of Rajbir and her husband, who got injured in an accident. Rajbir had sustained head injuries and was in need of urgent neurosurgery. She was shifted to the medical college in a serious condition,” said Father Roby, Director and Principal of the school.

Students and teachers joined hands and made a bid to help Rajbir after Riba, a student of the school, informed the principal, teachers and students about the plight of the poor accident victim couple and about their need for the money.

Father Roby said Hindustan Petroleum had also contributed Rs 25,000 for the operation of Gurdev.

Jalandhar, September 1
Getting an FIR registered seems pretty much of an uphill task if figures given by the Hoshiarpur police are to be taken as an indication.

This, despite the fact that the Supreme Court had, in the Lalita Kumari versus the State of Uttar Pradesh case, directed that FIRs must be registered once a person approached the police station with a complaint.

Parvinder Singh Kittna, Human Empowerment League of Punjab (HELP) activist, said as per information supplied under the RTI Act, only 136 FIRs and DDRs were registered out of 14,860 complaints received at all the 14 police stations of the district.

When crime is on the rise in the state, the Model Town police station submitted that in the past one and a half years it did not receive even a single complaint, hence, no FIR or DDR was registered. Surely a case of “Ram rajya” that needed to be replicated in thanas across the state, he remarked.

Interestingly, in the case of the Sadar police station, only one FIR was registered in the entire year. This thana covers an area that is in the news every day because of incidents of snatching and other heinous crimes, he added. Mukerian police station received 2,139 complaints of which 43 FIRs and 89 DDRs were registered. Mehtiana and Hajipur police stations did receive 462 and 320 compliants, respectively, but none were registered.

Hoshiarpur, September 1
The District Consumer Forum here ordered the National Insurance Company Limited, branch Mukerian, to pay Rs 43,801 with interest at the rate of 9 per cent per annum, to Gurbinder Singh, son of Sohinder Singh of Tanda village, along with litigation expenses of Rs 1,000 within one month. Gurbinder Singh filed a complaint against National Insurance Company Limited on the ground that he purchased a Scorpio car (bearing registration number HR-02-J-4683) on January 12, 2005 and thereafter got it insured with the aforesaid insurance company on January 27, 2005.

Later, he submitted the papers for the transfer of the RC in his name to the DTO office and the same was transferred in his name on March 14, 2005. The said car met with an accident on May 25, 2009 and after he got it repaired, he submitted the claim to the said insurance company along with the requisite papers. But his claim was wrongly repudiated by the insurance company vide letter of April 23, 3007.

The insurance company has raised the plea that on January 27, 2005, the RC was not transferred in the name of Gurbinder Singh. It was denied that Gurbinder Singh spent Rs 1.30 lakh on the repair of the vehicle. As per the survey report, the vehicle suffered a loss to the tune of Rs 43,801. It was found that the insurance policy is taken in the name of the complainant on January 27, 2005, whereas at that time, the RC was in the name of Matishwar Chandrana and finally the RC was transferred in his name on March 14, 2005, thus Gurbinder Singh has no insurable interest. The consumer forum, headed by its President P. D. Goel, held that since on the day of accident, the vehicle was comprehensively insured with the insurance company and its RC had also been transferred in the name of Gurbinder Singh, therefore, the plea raised by the insurance company that at the time of insurance, the complainant had no insurable interest does not hold any water, as it is clear that on the date of accident the vehicle was insured with the National Insurance Company Limited and the premium was paid by Gurbinder Singh and the RC of the vehicle was also transferred in his name.

 However, a heavy rain created problems for the officials to conduct the demolition operation. Municipal Council chief Ambika Khanna said the whole of the town would be cleared of encroacments and cleaning of the GT Road would be undertaken with the help of CPWD soon. — OC

Gurdaspur, September 1
Hundreds of activists of the Ministerial Staff Union yesterday staged a dharna and held a rally here while braving heavy rains to lodge their protest against the denial of payment of certain allowances to them as per the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission by the District Treasury Officer. The activists, who raised slogans against the District Treasury Officer, also gave a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner. They declared that they would stage a two-hour dharna daily till their genuine demands were accepted.

Organisational secretary of the union Arun Kumar alleged that District Treasury Officer Shashi Kant Sodhi had been denying them the payment of various allowances as per their pay structure worked out on the basis of the report of the pay commission despite the fact that state government had issued new instructions in connection with the implementation of the pay commission report.

He alleged that corruption had gripped the functioning of the District Treasury Office ever since Sodhi had taken over as District Treasury Officer.

Sodhi, when contacted, said payments of allowances to the employees were being made as per the instructions of the state government. He said employees were insisting that they should be given certain allowances as per the new pay scales fixed in the Fifth Pay Commission report despite the fact that the state government had not issued any instructions for doing the same.