Bank pays for blacklisting, threatening customer

C Unnikrishnan | TNN

Mumbai: The next time a bank offers a free credit card, think twice before saying yes. An advocate learnt this the hard way when a bank recently went to the extent of notifying his name as a defaulter with the Credit Information Bureau of (India) Limited (Cibil) even though it was not his fault.

The move meant that the advocate, K P Sreejith, would have found it impossible to avail a bank loan. However, refusing to take things lying down, Sreejith sued the bank, which was then directed by the consumer dispute redressal forum to pay up Rs 25,000 towards ‘mental agony and loss of reputation’ and another Rs 5,000 towards cost of litigation.

In August 2007, Barclay Bank approached Sreejith and offered a free life-time credit card considering his “good payment track record”.

Sreejith, who was initially reluctant, accepted the offer. On October 7, 2007, he made a purchase of Rs 918 through the card. A month later, the bank informed Sreejith over phone that he had not made the payment due on November 17.

Sreejith claimed that he had not received the statement but promptly paid the amount in accordance with the bank’s instructions. But soon he got the statement, in which where he was charged Rs 300 towards delayed payment. After Sreejith failed to get through to the bank over the phone, he sent an e-mail explaining the situation and requested them waive off the late fee.

The bank reverted saying the m at t e r had been forwarded to the department concerned. Even as the dispute was on, the late fee amount accumulated to Rs 2,000 and the bank allegedly sent recovery agents, who threatened Sreejith with dire consequences if the amount was not paid.

On January 4, 2008, the bank sent a letter to Sreejith asking him to pay Rs 734 and suspended his card. In February, the bank wrote saying the card would be permanently withdrawn and details would be forwarded to Cibil. On March 3, the bank carried out its threat after which Sreejith approached the consumer forum.

The bank denied issuing any threats and said levying late fee was proper. The bank also said that Cibil is not a defaulters’ list but only a data base of customers’ credit history.

The bank filed an affidavit saying the charges were reversed and there was no outstanding, which was intimated to Cibil.
The forum comprising president S P Mahajan and members Jyoti Iyer and S S Patil observed the bank had no regards for RBI directives as complaints to the customer services head was not attended to.

“The act of the bank in employing recovery agents is highly deplorable and it appears that the bank has no respect for the rule of the law.’’ the forum added.

GOA: Foreigners beware when buying property

Change In Laws, Builder Scams Threaten Investment Of Hundreds Of Foreigners In State

Nicola Smith

Hundreds of Britons may lose their holiday homes and life savings in Goa after falling foul of changes in local laws and scams by builders and lawyers. Some allege they are victims of racism and have been told to ‘‘go home’’.

Many invested tens of thousands of pounds a few years ago in legitimate transactions, only to be told the rules had changed and their properties may be confiscated. In one of the most common scenarios in Goa, British buyers were told by local lawyers and the Reserve Bank of India that they could legally own property if they set up an Indian company and made the transaction through it. By 2007, the rules on foreigners owning property through a business appeared to have changed, though only in Goa.

The region used to be part of the hippie trail, but has reinvented itself as a package-holiday centre. It attracts 1,00,000 British holidaymakers a year, 60% of its foreign tourist trade.

The new interpretation of the law by the Goan authorities has left hundreds, such as Su Peplow, 57, from Bedfordshire, without property deeds and facing large financial losses.

In 2005, Peplow, a quality director for a human tissue research association, decided to retire to Goa with her husband. They settled on a two-storey flat under construction in Cavelossim, a fishing village, and invested more than £20,000. The couple signed a contract for a
56-month lease with a right to buy. Like many others, they hired local lawyers to help them and were advised to set up a business to buy the flat.

Peplow’s husband died in 2006 and she decided to proceed with the purchase alone. She paid the builder for registration of the deeds, transfer of the utilities into her name, land tax and stamp duties. She also handed over £6,500 for furniture and renovation, and paid legal fees.

After she paid the final instalment to the builder, he reportedly said he could not transfer the deeds as he would be ‘‘breaking Goan laws’’. Her lawyer disappeared and she stands to lose her entire investment when the lease runs out.

Another Briton said despite a letter from RBI affirming that she had done everything legally, she was told by a local subregistrar that he ‘‘couldn’t register our property as I was white and a foreigner’’.

Vikram Varma, a local lawyer, said more than 1,000 people could have been caught out by changes in the laws and by builders’ scams. The British deputy high commissioner is being sent to Goa to hear people’s concerns.

The enforcement directorate and Goan government declined to comment.

The difficulties coincided with a popular movement opposing the purchase of large tracts of land by Indian and Russian developers as Goans fear losing their cultural identity.

SUNDAY TIMES, LONDON

Deaths of children in the cotton fields of Gujarat: GOVT APATHY

GOVT APATHY CONTINUES

5 more die in Bt cotton fields of Gujarat

Rao Jaswant Singh | TNN

Jaipur: Barely a week after TOI first reported the deaths of children in the Bt cotton fields of Gujarat (August 28), five more deaths have been reported from the area, taking the total number of those dead in just over a month to 10. A majority of the dead are children, including six girls.

All those who died had been trafficked from Udaipur-Dungarpur-Banswara region of Rajasthan. They were taken to work in the Bt cotton fields at Gujarat’s Banaskantha district, when the cross-pollination season began July-end.

Ironically, even after so many deaths, the district administration has failed to check the migration and initiate action against middlemen, who take children from Rajasthan to Gujarat.

Dakshin Rajasthan Majdoor Union, a social organisation working for migrant workers, has been spreading awareness and also helping the affected families in their fight for justice. Executive member of DRMU, Sudhir Katiyar, told TOI that the deceased workers included Bhuri Ben (14), Haju Ben (16), Madi Ben (16) and Ramesh (14) — all from Dungarpur district — and Basu Hakra Kharadi (13) of Udaipur, Rekha Adela (19) and Nathi Ben (40) of Udaipur, Raju Nemchand (21) of Banswara and an unidentified child worker.

Preliminary investigation by the NGO revealed that Basu Hakra died after congestion and respiratory problems, Rekha and Raju died under mysterious conditions while Nathi Ben died due to snake bite, but no postmortem was done in her case.

Katiyar said though police have registered a case, investigation is still on. ‘‘The cotton field owners are strong enough and police are hand in glove with them,’’ he alleged.In two days, seven Maha farmers kill self

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Farmers’ deaths in Maharashtra: Government apathy

Nagpur: With less than 40 days left for Maharashtra assembly elections, the farmers’ suicide crisis is raising its ugly head once again. Seven farmers committed suicide in the last two days in various parts of Vidarbha region, taking the this year’s toll to 638, an NGO that tracks suicides claimed on Saturday.

Vidarbha is facing a severe drought. Yavatmal district, the epicentre of the farm suicide crisis, is worst-hit with a rainfall deficiency of about 40%. ‘‘The rains in last 10 days brought some hope as it ended a prolonged dry spell. But the damage has already been done.

The unprecedented shortfall in monsoon has led to a large-scale pest attack destroying standing crop of soyabean and cotton, the two main cash crops of the region,’’ said Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti president Kishore Tiwari.

‘‘The mealy bug has not spared the high-cost genetically modified Bt cotton seed in Vidarbha this year. More than 90% farmers took to Bt seeds believing the claims of it being safe from pest attacks. But despite farmers spraying pesticide almost on alternative days, the crop has been ruined,’’ Tiwari told TOI from Pandharkawda, a main cotton growing centre in Yavatmal.

Delhi Govt helpline fails to stem capital’s tree-felling spree

Govt helpline fails to stem capital’s tree-felling spree

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: The government may be trying to extend its green cover in the city but the existing greens seem to be in trouble. Residents claim that despite the setting up of a tree helpline, no action is generally taken on complaints made. At times, even the complaint number is not given.

Incidentally, the Delhi Tree Protection Act says that no trees can be cut or pruned without permission from the forest department of the Delhi government.

The idea behind tree helpline, which was set up by the Delhi government three years ago, was to involve citizens in protection of trees. However, residents claim that despite repeated complaints to the helpline to report ‘‘merciless’’ pruning of trees in the Rohini area, the forest department has not initiated any action.

Upset by the inaction of the department, Sanjiv Kumar, a resident of sector 9, Rohini, says he’s even shot off a letter to the environment secretary. ‘‘Over the past few weeks, trees in the Rohini area have been pruned and even cut without the requisite permission. Repeated complaints to the tree helpline have not rescued the trees from their fate,’’ says Kumar.

Kumar, in fact, says that ‘‘hacking’’ of trees indiscriminately has been happening for some time now, with no response from the forest department. ‘‘Not only written complaints but even pictures of the felled trees have been provided. But no action taken,’’ adds the resident. Residents in the area allege that the unconcern shown by the local authorities has resulted in several trees falling in the recent storms.

‘‘The roots are left exposed during all the road digging and other civic works that happen here. We’ve called the tree helpline to register complaints but nothing has been done about the trees. As a result, even as small storm makes these trees topple over,’’ added Parul Chhabbra, a resident. Adds Kumar, ‘‘We’ve obviously no complaints about pruning. But this is killing the greens, and the tree helpline should be more accessible to residents.’’

Government authorities claim that the helpline has been registering calls, with no complaints coming in about complaint number not being provided. However, they do admit that lack of adequate manpower means that not all calls are attended immediately.

‘‘Permission for pruning and cutting trees has to be taken from us. But it is not possible for us to attend to every complaint that we receive. We don’t even have the required manpower,’’ said a senior forest department official.
toireporter@timesgroup.com

Silent Samaritans: Delhi:Home Cancer Care unit, RGCI

Amid fading hope, they bring cheer

Team Of 3 Docs Treats Terminally-Ill Cancer Patients, Counsels Their Kin

Shreya Roy Chowdhury | TNN

FIGHT TILL THE END: Home Cancer Care Unit of Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute visits patients every 15 days

New Delhi: Once every fortnight Swarn Kanta Kohli, terminally ill with abdominal cancer, wakes up early with a smile on her lips and cheer in her heart. It’s the day her friends drop by.

These are no ordinary friends but doctors from Home Cancer Care unit of Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute in Rohini. For the past three years, they have treated and counselled her — all for free — just as they have been doing with terminally-ill patients across Delhi.

Rajni Mutneja heads the three-member team, the others a psychologist and a nurse.

They can’t cure but make patients in their care comfortable. They visit the home of each patient at least once in 15 days, bearing nutritional powders, medicines, bandages and words of advice.

‘‘Their support is important. My mother looks to their visits,’’ says Vinod Kohli.

Team-head since 1999, Mutneja says that on an average, there are about 50 patients in their care at a time, two to three of them below the age of 20. Families are counselled against use of futile and frequently harmful alternative therapies; beds and wheelchairs left by deceased patients are circulated among others.

The fortnightly gesture of comfort is even more appreciated by families whose patient is bedridden and unresponsive. Vikrant Pande’s son Rahul was diagnosed with acute leukemia in 2001. He was just 10. In 2003, Rahul slipped into coma. When a 38-day stay at the hospital ended with no improvement, he was discharged. ‘‘It is difficult looking after a patient who can’t express his suffering.

We call the home care group whenever he has a cold or fever or his bedsores need dressing. It really boosts our morale to know someone from the hospital is helping our son,’’ says his father. On visits, lab coats are left behind — many families don’t want neighbours to know. Pande, for instance, is afraid that knowledge of his son’s condition can affect his 21-year-old daughter’s marriage prospects.

They do their best but can’t afford to get too involved. ‘‘Most live for a few weeks to a few months after registering,’’ says Mutneja, who gave up her career as a gynaecologist to tend to the dying. Only about 20% survive beyond two years. ‘‘Sometimes, we call a day before and find upon arriving that the patient passed away in the meantime,’’ she says. But association with the family doesn’t end with the patient’s demise. ‘‘We do at least one condolence visit,’’ says Anita, ‘‘but many of them stay in touch.’’

Much of their work is counselling the families. The team psychologist, Anita Kumari, relates the case of one 52-year-old patient they’re attending to. ‘‘Her husband was stressed and the attendant said he was popping sleeping pills,’’ she says. She got him to speak up while his wife slept, extending support.

The home care programme started a year after the hospital itself, in 1997. ‘‘It is based on the West’s hospice concept,’’ says medical director Dr AK Chaturvedi. Most patients are from RGCI, but about 15% are referred by other hospitals. Since 1997, the team has attended to 2,200 patients. And according to Chaturvedi, there are plans of adding another team.

‘‘We’ve seen so much death,’’ says Anita, who previously worked with an NGO helping school dropouts get back on track. But there’s no sense of despondence.

‘‘You can’t tell what’s in store even for a healthy person,’’ Mutneja reasons. ‘‘We feel satisfied when the patients feel better and their families bless us,’’ they agree.
(Some names have been changed to protect identity)

Raj Thackeray: Ration Cards should not be proof for ID

‘Ration cards can’t be used as ID proof’

Somit Sen & Sanjeev Shivadekar | TNN

Mumbai: MNS chief Raj Thackeray has demanded that ration cards should not be allowed as an identity proof for assembly elections. He has decided to take up the issue with the chief election commissioner (CEC) in Delhi.

Thackeray submitted a memorandum in this connection to Maharashtra’s chief electoral officer Debashish Chakrabarty on Wednesday. He said the party will bring to the notice of the EC practice of using of bogus ration cards on voting day. He added that ration cards in Maharashtra did not have photographs of family members.

“In other states, the cards bear photographs. In our state, they do not have photographs and should not be allowed as proof of identity.”

He asked the EC to allow politicians to use government guest houses/bungalows during campaigns in villages and demanded a single window clearance for permissions to hold rallies, meetings and campaign trails.

Silent Angels:Chennai : NGOs activity centres for child domestic workers

NGOs start activity centres for child domestic workers

M Ramya | TNN

Chennai: After the case of 10-year-old Rameshwari Jadhav being beaten and scalded by her employer — a small-time TV actor in Mumbai — came to light, the labour ministry is trying to curb the practice of employing children as domestic workers. But not many people are interested in children like 15-year-old R Ragini, an orphan living with her brother and sister, who has been working as a maid in a house in Rajapillai Thottam in T Nagar for 12 years.

Ragini dropped out of school when she was in Class III, and can’t even write her own name. If she had been discovered a year ago, legal action could have been taken against her employer for hiring a child in hazardous labour, but now the Child Labour Prevention and Regulation Act (CLPRA) cannot help her since she is over 14 years.

An ongoing survey of child domestic workers in the city by two NGOs, Save The Children and Arunodaya Centre for Street and Working Children, shows that there are 35 children being employed in households in Kodambakkam, T Nagar and Choolaimedu, and 22 children in T P Chattram, Anna Nagar and Aminjikarai, many of them between 14 and 18 years.

Programme manager of Save The Children in the state Sandhya Krishnan says, “Though child labour has been included as a hazardous form of labour under the CLPRA, it states that only children under 14 cannot be employed in hazardous forms of labour, leaving those aged between 14 and 18 years (who are also children under Article 32 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children) without legal protection.”

Many of the children in this age group grow up to become poorly paid unskilled domestic workers. Extra-curricular or recreational activities or learning vocational skills is out of the question. To change this, the NGOs are setting up six contact and activity centres across the city. There are three centres in the city — two in Kodambakkam and one in T P Chattram.

It gives children the opportunity to play games and learn vocational skills such as tailoring and beauty techniques. Where such centres are not possible, the organisations are talking to resident welfare associations in apartments to allow them to use parking areas to give the children vocational training.

E Mala, who handles the centre in Rangarajapuram in Kodambakkam which caters to 23 children between 15 and 17 years, says, “Children can express themselves, increase their self-esteem and have fun. These are things that they never seem to have time for.”

Mala, who started working as a domestic help when she was 10, is now studying second year BA History in Quaid-E-Millet College for Women and wants to become a social worker.

Through these centres the NGOs hope to have many success stories like that of Firoza in Kolkata, who successfully completed a six-month beautician course. She has since left her employer and returned to her family in Joynagar, from where she commutes five days a week to Kolkata where she is a practising beautician and to continue her training.

Firoza is Ragini’s idol. “I just learnt how to apply mascara. Next week I’m going to learn how to shape eyebrows. Soon I’ll be working just like Firoza akka,” she says.

Police: A brave cop

Brave heart cop helps nab dacoit

Dragged For 200 Mtrs As He Held On To Steering Wheel Of Suspects’ Jeep

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Pune: The daring act of a c o n s t abl e helped the Pune rural police nab a suspect belonging to a six-member gang that allegedly committed a dacoity at a f a r m e r ’s house at Ranjani village near Manchar — about 60 km from here — in the wee hours of Friday.
Police constable S N Swami held on to the steering wheel of a jeep in which the suspects were trying to flee. He was dragged for nearly 200 metres, after which the driver lost control of the vehicle and it crashed to a halt.

The gang of six dacoits had forced their way into farmer Laxman Nana Bhor’s house around 2 am on Friday. They threatened the Bhor family with sharp weapons; snatched Bhor’s gold ring, his wife Sunita’s gold chain, other silver ornaments and cash of Rs 8,000, and fled. The Bhors immediately informed the Manchar police about the incident.
Assistant police inspector Dyaneshwar Ganore of the Manchar police told TOI, “Our team immediately rushed to the spot. Bhor showed us the direction in which the suspects had fled.”

Members of the Gram Surksha Dal also gathered to help the police. “When we were heading towards Belhe road, we saw a jeep that looked suspicious. Seeing our police jeep, it started gathering speed, but we gave chase and blocked its path, bringing it to a halt. There were six persons in the jeep. The driver told us that they were coming from Bhimashankar,” Ganore said.

“Police constable S N Swami tried to remove the key from the ignition. However, the driver started the jeep and drove towards Nimgaon Sava village with constable Swami holding on to the steering wheel. Swami was dragged for about 200 metres and fell to the road, a few meters away from us,” Ganore said.

The driver, meanwhile, lost control of the jeep and it overturned. Gram Surksha Dal members, who were present, immediately pulled one of the suspects out of the vehicle and started thrashing him. “We ran towards the jeep and managed to rescue the man from the clutches of the Gram Surksha Dal members. However, the other suspects managed to escape,” Ganore said.

The police recovered sandalwood and weapons from the jeep. The suspect has been identified as Rajendra Sitaram Jadhav (25) of Pathardi in Ahmednagar district. “We have sent a team to Pathardi to look for the other suspects,” Ganore said.

Investigations have revealed that the gang was involved in many sandalwood thefts in the district, Ganore further said.
A close shave

Pune: “If I could have managed to remove the keys from the jeep, we would have been able to nab all the suspects,” said police constable S N Swami.

“As the driver told us they were coming from Bhimashankar, we became suspicious. I tried to remove the keys from the ignition, but the driver started the jeep and increased its speed. My hand was stuck in the steering wheel, while my body was suspended outside the jeep.

I somehow managed to hold on to the wheel,” he said.
“One of them hit my hand with a weapon and due to the impact, I fell on the road,” Swami added. TNN

S N Swami

KOSI:‘ KOSI’S CURSE WILL VISIT US AGAIN’

‘ KOSI’S CURSE WILL VISIT US AGAIN’

I T WAS in August last year that Bihar witnessed unprecedented floods when a breach occurred upstream of the Kosi barrage and the river suddenly changed its course — converting vast tracts of habitat into a 15 to 20 km wide sheet of water — flowing into some of its ancient channels.

The river was diverted back to the old course through the barrage on January 26, 2009 after restoring an about 2000 m long embankment which had breached.

Rajiv Sinha — a professor of geosciences at IIT Kanpur who has been studying the river for many years — now says that it is only a question of time before there is another breach and flooding from Kosi because the underlying conditions that led to the disaster remain the same.

Sinha says avulsion or sudden change in a river’s course happens when a threshold is crossed — when the cross valley slope is close to or more than the down valley slope.

The Kosi crossed this threshold last year primarily due to excessive deposition of sediment within the channel bed.

The river was literally flowing in a ‘ super- elevated’ position.

It changed its course because it found a new equilibrium.

“ By putting the river back, we have re- created the same ‘ unstable’ condition for the river and it is only a matter of time before the river crosses the threshold!

To the best of my knowledge, no major river training work has been carried out so far to create a more ‘ stable’ and ‘ favourable’ condition for the river to flow along the ‘ forced’ course”, Sinha has opined.