|
|
|
|
|
Duped by travel agents, families of youths relive trauma
‘Immigrants major contributors
to economy of adopted nation’
|
|
|
Galliara Project: Victim denied right to own property in lieu of acquired house
Ward 8: Development suffers as councillor shifts loyalties
Placement cell established at Rayat
& Bahra
Insurance company
told to pay Rs 1,35,900
|
|
Duped by travel agents, families of youths relive trauma
Nawanshahr, September 18
Narrating their tales of woes to The Tribune, the affected families said that though they had lodged complaints against unauthorised travel agents with the police, filed a petition in the court and met the Union Minister, Perneet Kaur and Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, but they have not got any clue about the well-being or whereabouts of their. Jarnail Singh of village Tapparian said that he had paid a sum of Rs 5.50 lakh to a travel agent, Harbhajan Singh of Aiman Jattan village in October 2004 for sending his son Hardep Singh to Spain. Aterwards, he did not get any information about his only son who was just 18 years old when he fell prey to the fraud of the travel agents. An FIR was registered against the travel agent and even when they met the Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Perneet Kaur, to get clue about his son but it was in vain. The Minister had taken up the issue with the Embassy of Spain and got the report that only three Indian youth were in jail in Spain. Sucha Singh of village Chhokeran said that he had paid a sum of Rs 4 lakh to the travel agent for sending his son Kuldip Singh to Spain. The balance amount of Rs. 1.50 lakh was to be given after his son reached Spain. But he had still not received any information about the whereabouts of his son. Amarjit Singh of Amargarh village said that he had paid a sum of Rs 5.50 lakh to the unauthorised travel agents - Prem Singh, Davinder Singh of village Amargarh and Rakesh Kumar of Nawanshahr for sending his brother Baljinder Singh to Spain in Febuary 2004 but the family had been desperately awaiting any information about Baljinder. “Though the errant, unauthorised travel agents have been roaming freely, the affected families have been living in a dilemma about the well-being of the youth”, according to Amarjit Singh. In the absence of any concrete information about the whereabouts of the duped youth, Perneet Kaur and Ramoowalia expressed their helplessness in bringing the youth back. Amrjit Singh also urged the authorities concerned to tighten the noose against the errant unauthorised travel agents to help in the investigations to bring justice to the victims.
|
||
|
‘Immigrants major contributors
to economy of adopted nation’
Amritsar, September 18 Talking to mediapersons after paying obeisance at Golden Temple here today Warsi said after overcoming new challenges and discarding their responsibilities immigrants are able to contribute in the progress of their adopted country. She said UK's Asian community was giving their best in various departments. Of a Pakistani origin, Warsi is also co-chairperson of the Conservative party. David Cameron, after becoming Prime Minister had appointed her cabinet member without a portfolio along with 23 other cabinet ministers. She would also hold a business dinner for the officials of the BMI, which would start thrice a week flight between Amritsar-London-Almaty from the next month. For the next two-days she would hold meetings with Indian cabinet ministers over a range of issues at New Delhi. She said the issues to come up for discussion include finance, trade and other key issues of mutual interest. She said the aim of the visit was to consolidate bilateral relations between Britain and India. She said it was her first visit to India after becoming the cabinet minister. She came to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple right after landing at Delhi airport. She said she experienced spiritual bliss in pious environs of the Sikh shrine. SGPC officials felicitated her as well as the staff of the British High Commission with siropas (robes of honour), models of Golden Temple and a set of books on Sikhism. |
||
|
Galliara Project: Victim denied right to own property in lieu of acquired house
Amritsar, September 18 An HIG flat (903-B), in Ranjit Avenue, was allotted in the name of Khazan Singh’s mother Late Avtar Kaur (then alive), on compassionate grounds in lieu of the house, she alongwith her family resided in, since 1920. This house had been acquired under the state government’s Galliara project for the redevelopment and beautification of the Golden Temple Complex, in June 1988. Nevertheless, before she could ask for the sale deed in her favour, PUDA revoked the ownership rights of the said flat. She approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court against this discriminatory attitude of PUDA. The court held her fully eligible to own the flat under question and directed PUDA to handover the flat to her after furnishing all formalities, but it was still not to be. Avtar Kaur died but her son Khazan Singh kept this battle on. Nevertheless, Khazan Singh received a communication from the PUDA intimating him to deposit the 10 per cent of the total cost of the flat, calculated as Rs 20.35 lakh, whereas as per his entitlement, the cost of the flat should have been the one which was applicable in 1988, the year when they were dislocated from their old house near Golden Temple. Khazan Singh had procured under RTI, the documents pertaining to an identical case, wherein an HIG flat in Ranjit Avenue was allotted to a galliara scheme victim at a subsidised cost of Rs 76,344 by the PUDA, yet it hesitated to extend the same gesture to him and asked him to deposit the present prevailing price. It is to mention that Avtar Kaur and her family were tenants in house number 1012/IV-26, Street Fatehabadian, Bazar Baba Sahib, since 1920. This house was having a covered area of 1723.37 sq. feet. As per format released by the state government in 1988, those who were living in rented accommodation, having covered areas of 1500 sq. feet or above, were offered an HIG accommodation with subsidy of 50 per cent of total cost of construction of the dwelling unit which amounted to around Rs 82,000, then. Sawinder Pal, Estate Officer, PUDA, when apprised about this lapse stated that he would review the matter on priority. “Actually, I have joined here few months ago and do not have first-hand knowledge about the matter. Ask the applicant to see me tomorrow. I will personally review the case on merit”, he assured. Unending struggle for a home l
An HIG flat (903-B), in Ranjit Avenue, was allotted in the name of late Avtar Kaur in lieu of the house, she resided in since 1920. l In June 1988, Avtar Kaur’s house had been acquired under Galliara project for redevelopment and beautification of the Golden Temple Complex l Before she could ask for the sale deed in her favour, PUDA revoked the ownership rights of the said flat. l Punjab and Haryana High Court approached against discriminatory attitude of
PUDA. l HC held her fully eligible to own the flat under question and directed PUDA to handover the flat to her after furnishing all formalities. l Avtar Kaur died but her son Khazan Singh kept this battle on. l Khazan Singh received a communication from PUDA intimating him to deposit the 10 per cent of the total cost of the flat, calculated as Rs 20.35 lakh |
||
|
Ward 8: Development suffers as councillor shifts loyalties
Jalandhar, September 18 It has been more than two years since development works to the tune of Rs 2.5 crore have been hanging fire due to the pick and choose policy of the MC authorities. The bone of contention in Ward 8 is councillor Nirmal Singh, who won as an independent candidate defeating Varinder Sharma of the Congress and Harsurinder Singh of the SAD. Everything remained fine until Nirmal was aligned with the ruling SAD-BJP combine. “During the 2009 general elections, I left the SAD-BJP combine and joined the Congress which resulted in sour relations with the MC authorities. Till date I have just completed development works worth Rs 2 crore in my ward. Ever since I switched loyalties to the Congress, my ward has been lying neglected”, he said. It is owing to this reason that a majority of the colonies of this ward including Lamma Pind, Jaimal Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, Arjun Nagar, Ajit Nagar, Muslim Colony, Christian Colony, Vivek Nagar, Upkar Nagar, Uchha Upkar Nagar and Chandigarh colony have been bearing the brunt of lack of development works. The councillor highlighted that he wanted to construct roads in Jaimal Nagar and Upkar Nagar on priority but despite an approval from the MC, the work has been delayed. He also said Arjun Nagar and Muslim colony both of which have been functioning without a proper water supply have been the worst affected. “With no road connectivity we are forced to live in utter hell. While during rains, the entire street gets filled with mud water and it almost becomes difficult for us to commute, but nothing has been done till date”, said Gauri Shanker, an elderly resident. It is pertinent to mention here that according to MC rules a project once started should be completed within six months time. However in my ward all these works have been deliberately put on hold by the Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC) of MC since 2007, which clearly reveals the policies of the MC in the name of development,” said Nirmal Singh. Further Nirmal Singh rued that Jalandhar North MLA K.D. Bhandari never gave even a single penny for development works to my ward from the MLA funds. “All these years even Bhandari gave funds to the SAD-BJP ruled councillors to gain political mileage, while the Congress ruled wards were ignored,”, he maintained. The residents of Lamma Pind and Gandhi Nagar also expressed their resentment over the long pending promise of getting a public park constructed in these localities. “We were assured that a park would come up in our localities but the tenure of the councilor is coming to an end and we are still waiting for the work to begin”, said Seema Rani a resident of Gandhi Nagar. However on this, the councilor said that the MC had passed around Rs 12 Lakh each for two public parks but till date did not release the funds. “While I am being harassed for my pro-congress lineage, the SAD-BJP ruled wards like ward number 5, 17 and 45 have got done development works to the tune of Rs 10 to 15 Crores”, he added. |
||
|
Placement cell established at Rayat
& Bahra
Hoshiarpur, September 18 The cell began functioning from the Mohali campus of the group of institutes last year. It is the only placement cell in the region which is completely functional and has the tie-ups with top organisations like NEN, Bangalore, TIE, IIT Kharagpur and many more, according to a spokesperson of the institute. The cell also won national award from NEN in February this year for performing as the best Debutant E Cell of India, the spokesperson added. |
||
|
Insurance company
told to pay Rs 1,35,900
Nawanshahr, September 18 Satpal Singh in his complaint stated that he was Cancard member of the United India Insurance Company, in which he had been having mediclaim policy for the past about 20 years, and the policy was being regularly renewed by him. He had submitted medicine bills amounting to Rs 1,81,311 pertaining to the treatment of his son Ramanjit Singh to the insurance company for reimbursement. The treatment was taken during the period of February 23, 2007, to September 7, 2008, but the company refused to settle the claim, consequently, showing deficiency in service. The insurance company, while defending the rejection of the claim, accused Ramanjit Singh of concealing the facts about his suffering from hepatitis B, which did not fall in any illness. Besides, the claim was rejected on the grounds that Ramanjit Singh was never admitted to any hospital and it was a claim of Out Patient Department (OPD) consultation for anti-viral therapy towards hepatitis B infection. Thus, the complainant did not fulfil the main criterion of hospitalisation for getting the claim. The complainants had also failed to submit the claim papers to the United India Insurance Company within seven days of the hospitalisation. Instead, the claim papers were submitted after two years of the commencement of the treatment. The Bench, comprising L.N. Sharma, president, Karnail Singh and Sudha Sharma, members, of the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, heard the arguments and saw the documentary evidence put forth by both the parties and found that complainant Ramanjit Singh was not suffering from any disease on January 1, 2006, when the policy was renewed and there was no specific reference regarding the compulsory hospitalisation for at least 24 hours for seeking claim for the treatment. Besides, the company could not reject the claim completely on the pretext of delayed submission of the claim papers, but bound to pay the claim up to 75 per cent if there was any breach of conditions and warranty of the policy. The forum directed the United India Insurance Company to pay 75 per cent of the claim amount, ie Rs 1,35,900, to the complainants and Rs 10,000 as compensation for causing harassment.
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
Amritsar, September 18
