Bathinda, July 19
Barely a day after Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav directed the heads of all the school in the district to maintain the quality of the food served to students under the mid-day meal scheme of the Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan (SSA), the food served to students at the Government Senior Secondary School located in the Phulokhari village needs a ‘relook’.

The school authorities have allegedly been using pulses and cereals infested with worms to prepare the mid-day meal. Ironically, the school management has also been using an age-old method of ridding the cereals and pulses of worms.

To eliminate the worms, the infested ingredients are kept out in the open under the sun with the hope that the heat will make the worms crawl away. After the cereals and pulses have had a 'sun bath', the same are used for preparing the meal.

When contacted, the principal of the school, Balwinder Kaur, said it was common for the school to get bags of worm-infested cereals and pulses. "We can't help much in this case as the foodgrains are supplied to us. We do our best to get rid of the worms and use the foodgrains only after the worms have either died or crawled away due to heat," the principal said.

Expressing her disbelief over the practice, District Education Officer (Elementary education) Amarjit Kaur Kotfatta said, "This is a sad state of affairs. The schools heads are responsible for providing hygienically cooked good quality meal to their students under the SSA scheme."

"The school heads or those in charge of the mid-day meal scheme in schools should pay special attention to the storage of foodgrains during the monsoon. To make sure that the schools follow all the norms set for the scheme, we will soon start conducting surprise checkings," she added.

On Thursday, the Mansa district administration suspended the officiating head of the Government Primary School at Rampur Mander village of Budhlada for allegedly adulterating the mid-day meal.

Bathinda, July 19
As many as 18 persons sustained injuries when a private mini-bus they were travelling in collided with a roadside tree after the driver lost control over the vehicle near Daan Singhwala village on the Jaitu-Bathinda road today. The condition of three injured persons is stated to be serious.

The bus was carrying more than 40 passengers at the time of the incident and was reportedly being driven at a high speed.

The passengers sitting near the driver’s seat said the bus veered off the road when the driver, identified as Gurjant Singh, tried to change a song on the stereo using a remote control. The vehicle rammed into a transformer after hitting a tree on the roadside.

Nearly 18 passengers received injuries and three of them were reported to be serious.

Volunteers of NGOs from Goniana, Bathinda and Jaitu rushed to the site along with ambulances on learning about the accident and helped in shifting the injured passengers to the Government Hospital at Goniana. However, three of the injured passengers were referred to the Civil Hospital at Bathinda.

The transformer that the bus hit got badly damaged thereby disconnecting the power supply.

Officials from the Nehianwala police station and highway patrolling staff reached the spot and recorded the statement of the injured.

The police said action would be initiated in this connection after recording the statements of the injured.

Bathinda, July 19
The collision between a car and a bus on the GT Road yesterday has once again brought the attention towards the growing number of accidents in the city.

Commuters and traffic policemen believe a large number of intersections on the road was the main cause of accidents. The cause of yesterday's accident was also an intersection. While the bus was entering the city from the Goniana side the car was turning towards the city.

Four persons, including a six-year-old child, received injuries in the accident that took place near the TVS showroom on the road. After being hit by the bus, the car tumbled three or four times. Area residents and volunteers of an NGO brought the occupants out of the car.

Officials at the Civil Lines police station said they did not initiate any action in this connection as both the parties had reached a compromise.

Daily commuters and traffic policemen said in the past, a large number of accidents have been reported on the stretch.

"The reason behind accidents near Tinkoni is a large number of intersections," said Sonu Maheshwari, the president of Naujawan Welfare Society, an NGO.

City Traffic in-charge Bharpur Singh admitted that intersections were the reason behind the rise in the number of accidents on the road. Apart from engineering faults, there were human errors which lead to accidents, he added.

"Even as a large number of challans have been issued, people still do not abide by the traffic rules. One can notice people using mobile phone while driving. Many accidents have proved fatal for those riding two-wheelers without wearing helmets or in an inebriated condition," Bharpur Singh said.

Bathinda, July 19
Aiming to ensure safety of students and also to keep an eye on them, all the colleges in the city have resorted to installing closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras on the campuses. The numbers of CCTVs installed differ according to the area of the campus and the number of students at the college.

The Government Rajindra College, the only government college in the city that offers graduation and post-graduation courses, has installed as many as 16 CCTVs on its campus. Although three of these CCTVs are yet to start functioning, the remaining cover the major corridors, the entrance of the college, library, canteens and other important places on the campus.

“Three of the cameras are not working properly because there is some problem in electricity supply. We have also ordered for a bigger LED screen to view the footages of these cameras,” said Vijay Goyal, principal of the college.

The number of CCTVs installed on the SSD College campus is the maximum in the city. The SSD College campus houses three colleges. The campus has close to 50 CCTVs. The SSD College for girls has 26 CCTVs, the SSD College of Education has six-seven cameras, the SSD College for Management Technology has 10 and eight CCTVs are installed inside the girls’ hostel.

The campus of the Baba Farid Group of Institutions, which houses several constituent colleges, has as many as 30 cameras. While five big cameras with high zoom-in quality, are installed on the top of the buildings of the colleges, the remaining have been installed at other strategic points on the campus. The five big cameras keep an eye on the activities of the outsiders and students over the expanse of the campus and cover some of the most frequented and crowded corridors.

“We rarely had any discipline problem in the college. Still, the corridors, the library and the entrance of the college are under continuous surveillance of CCTVs,” said Dr JS Anand, principal of the DAV College. The college has only four such cameras.

The SSD College of Professional Studies, which will be inaugurated by Member of Parliament Harsimrat Kaur Badal, is also planning to install cameras to ensure safety of its students.

“This is the first academic session of the college. We are in the process of take several steps, which will facilitate our students. Installing CCTVs is one of them,” said OD Sharma, a member of the board of directors of the college. 

Bathinda, July 19
The District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum has directed Aviva Life Insurance Company Limited to pay Rs 2 lakh to a nominee of a city resident after the latter's death.

Advocate KK Vinocha pleaded the case for the complainant and Varun Gupta was the counsel for the opposite party.

In a complaint, Nirmal Singh, son of late Jagjit Singh of Jangirana village, said his father had purchased an insurance policy, assuring a sum of Rs 2 lakh, by paying half-yearly premium of Rs 10,000 for 10 years with the death benefit and 100 per cent growth of investment.

The father selected his son as nominee to receive all benefits in case of the former’s death. He paid Rs 60,000 regularly as premium for three consecutive policy years. The complainant alleged that the policy in question is neither surrendered nor terminated.

The policeholder, Jagjit, suffered a heart attack and died in December 2012.

The complainant gave intimation to the opposite parties about his death and requested them to pay the assured sum of Rs 2 lakh along with other benefits, if any.

The opposite parties intimated that the policy in question has been terminated and a cheque of Rs 20,000 was dispatched on August 13, 2012, as it was lapsed in July 2011 due to non-payment of the premium by the deceased. They also cleared that no benefits are payable as the policy was terminated as on the date of death of the policy holder.

The complainant, however, alleged that the opposite parties neither issued any cheque nor the same was received by him.

The complainant further alleged that he requested the opposite parties to make payment of the assured sum, but they refused to do so.

The opposite party in its reply to the forum said the deceased had purchased the Easy Life Plus Unit Linked Plan and filled a proposal form for the 
same and opted to pay Rs 20,000 as annual premium with an assured sum of 
Rs 2 lakh.

The deceased paid three annual premiums against the policy to the opposite parties. He paid the last renewal premium on May 24, 2011, and thereafter he did not pay any renewal premium. The next renewal premium was due on July 21, 2011, but it was not paid within the grace period and ultimately the policy lapsed due to non-payment.

Next premiums due on January 21, 2012, and July 21, 2012, were also not paid and the status of the policy of the deceased life assured was changed into auto foreclosed due to non-payment of renewal premium on July 21, 2012, and auto foreclosure amount of Rs 20,000 was sent through cheque to the complainant.

The opposite parties have pleaded that as the policy was terminated before the death of the policyholder, all its benefits were ceased.

Hence, the claim of the complainant for the deceased, who died in December 2012 is untenable as per terms and conditions of the policy.

The forum after hearing arguments and pleadings of both parties observed that the deceased paid Rs 60,000 regularly as premium for 3 consecutive policy years - six half-yearly instalments of Rs 10,000 each, commencing from July 21, 2008, to May 24, 2011.

The policyholder in his lifetime neither surrendered the policy not got it terminated.

According to Article 2)c)ii), if the regular premium is not received within the grace period of 30 days from the due date of the first unpaid instalment of the regular premium, then it will remain in force with all benefits under Article 3 for two years.

Neither the policy was terminated nor the opposite parties have any right and authority to terminate the same in, reinstatement period of two years, within which the insured has died. Hence, there is a deficiency in service on the part of the opposite parties in repudiating the claim of the complainant.

The forum stated that no record has been placed on file by the opposite party to prove that the cheque in question has actually been sent to the policyholder.

Bathinda, July 19
The Baba Farid Group of Institutions (BFGI), Bathinda, has been selected among the e-governance campuses of the year.

A selection committee, headed by Dr M Moni, former director-general of the NIC, and co-chaired by Dr Sanjeev Singh of the Institute of Informatics and Communication, Delhi University, has selected the BFGI as an e-governance campus among 100 colleges from across the country.

The NIC is the only government body in the country that assists the administrations of the Central and state governments and Union Territories in order to provide e-governance facilities to citizens across the nation.

The students of e-governance campuses shall get the opportunities to work on projects in the fields of income tax, central excise, employment exchange, education, health, agriculture, commercial tax, e-panchayat, e-district, India portal, insurance, banking, pension, posts, e-procurement, road transport and e-biz.

In addition, they will fetch handsome income in lieu of working on these projects.

Jury members Dr Moni and Dr Sanjeev viewed the 100 topmost campuses of India and selected BFGI among them. Chairman of the BFGI, Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal, received the e-governance award during a formal felicitation ceremony held at New Delhi on the United Nations Public Service Day. Lise Grande, resident coordinator, and Oscar Fernandes, Union Minister of Transport, Roads and Highway, honoured the Chairman.

Dhaliwal said it was a matter of great pride for students of the BFGI.