Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Meeting of RTD Justice Padmini Jesudurai by WWC of Chennai Division-I

The women sub committee of Chennai division - I under the leadership of  com.K.Vijayalakshmi Joint Secretary, ICEU, met The first Women Justice of Chennai High Court and got the first hand knowledge about the difficulties faced by women in the society. Com. G.K. Jayalakshmi and com.Meenalochini are the other members who were in the delegation. The Report was published in UDAYAM. 






Kin of road mishap victims awarded over Rs 25 L compensation

New Delhi: Family members of a 28-year-old youth, mowed down by a rashly driven truck which also injured his father and brother in the road mishap, have been awarded a compensation of over Rs 25 lakh by a Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) here.

The tribunal directed Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company Ltd, with which the offending truck was insured, to pay Rs 23,90,600 to the wife, three minor children and the parents of deceased Subhash.
It also directed the insurance company to pay Rs 1,23,826 and Rs 22,486 to victim's father Bhagwan Singh and brother Ashok who were also injured in the accident when they were travelling at a motorcycle and were hit by the truck.
"Sufficient material has been placed on record to prove the factum of negligence on the part of erring driver, who was driving the offending truck, rashly and negligently and in causing the accident," MACT Presiding Officer Nirja Bhatia said.
While awarding the compensation, the MACT said Subhash's wife has "suffered loss of life of her husband as well as loss of enjoyment of her life on account of being deprived of his company and enjoyment of matrimonial bliss. She may not be able to live a normal life after losing her life partner."
The accident took place on a February 2011 night when Sriniwas Puri resident Subhash, who was working as driver with Perfect Ten Tour Operator, was coming back to Delhi from Aligarh on his motorcycle along with his father and brother, who were pillion riders.
When they reached near Sagar Ratna restaurant at Mathura Road, the offending truck trailor, which was being driven in a careless manner by Munazir took a sudden left turn and hit the motorcycle dragging it for few metres before coming to a halt.
Due to the accident, Subhash died on the spot while Bhagwan Singh and Ashok received grievous injuries.


Bajaj Allianz asked to pay Rs 13.74L to policy holder's hubby


New Delhi: Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co Ltd has been asked by a consumer forum here to reimburse the legal heirs of a woman, holding a medical insurance policy, Rs 13.24 lakh, the amount spent on her treatment.

Observing that Bajaj Allianz had "arbitrarily" rejected the claim for reimbursement of medical bills on woman's treatment in the USA despite charging the premium, the New Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum also directed the firm to pay Rs 50,000 as damages for causing harassment to the husband of the woman.
The woman had died later after claiming reimbursement of money spent on her medical treatment.
"In our considered view, opposite party (Bajaj Allianz) has simply taken an excuse to deny the just claim, by arbitrarily repudiating the claim after issuing the policy and taking premium. This is serious deficiency and harassment of legal heirs of deceased Lilawati.
"We direct Bajaj Allianz to release the sum of Rs 13.24 lakh equal to USD 26,717.32 (medical expense) to legal heirs, the husband of deceased. We award harassment damage of Rs 50,000," the bench presided by C K Chaturvedi said.
The forum's order came on the plea of the legal heirs of the deceased policy holder, Lilawati, who had purchased an overseas medical policy from the insurance firm.
Lilawati, while in the USA in 2008 had undergone treatment and surgery for abdomen troubles for which she had to pay USD 26,717, the Noida-based legal heirs in their plea had said.
On returning to India, the claim was submitted to the firm, which had rejected it saying that as per the discharge summary she had been suffering from "pre-existing" diseases of diabetes and high blood pressure.
The firm had pleaded that if her pre-existing ailments had been disclosed, they could have better assessed the risk.
The bench while terming the defence of the firm as a mere excuse, said "discharge summary itself states that it (her abdominal trouble) had no relation with pre-existing diabetes, which was under control by diet and blood pressure had been treated."

Monday, June 25, 2012


          Remembering a Departed Comrade: Dipankar Mukherjee


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Dipankarda will be sorely missed by his comrades in the trade union movement and the broader Left democratic movement, as an untiring champion of the working class and a firm defender of India’s economic self-reliance. For those who had the opportunity to know him personally, he will leave a large void.
It is impossible to forget his extraordinary personality; his quick-wittedness, his rare ability to talk straight, his indignation towards injustice and corruption and his sharp sense of humour. From the floor of the parliament to television debates, from working class rallies to drawing room discussions – Dipankarda would always stand by his convictions and argue his heart out, unyielding on what he thought was right. 
He was trained as an engineer from the Banaras Hindu University and worked for some years in the public sector fertiliser industry. It was his professional expertise, in-depth knowledge of various industries and a deep commitment towards the public sector, which made Dipankarda a formidable and revered parliamentarian from the Left (1994 to 2006). At a time when the public sector enterprises were being stridently berated from all sides, Dipankarda’s was an unapologetic voice in its defence. His interventions in the debates on BALCO privatization, Enron project, NLCL and NALCO disinvestment, Airport privatization etc. would be long cherished by all those involved in the struggles. He was particularly passionate about the revival of sick or closed PSEs and even recently, would often rue how the Union government is paying a heavy price - through costly fertiliser imports – for neglecting the domestic public sector fertiliser plants.  
Dipankarda’s most noted intervention was of course in the area of petro-pricing. He was a major contributor to a Parliamentary Standing Committee Report on Pricing of Petroleum Products in 2005, which brought the issue of high indirect taxes on petro products to the fore and criticized the concept of “under-recoveries”, which was based on “import-party pricing” and not actually incurred costs. Since then, Dipankarda had made it a mission to explain these complex issues to the ordinary citizens, in order to expose the government’s flawed rationale, each time oil prices were raised. Of late, Dipankarda was closely following the issue of natural gas pricing and the matters related to the KG-D6 gas block. Many of the anomalies which were later nailed by the CAG report were initially identified by him. 
Dipankarda was deeply distressed by the way natural resources of our country, like airwaves, natural gas, coal blocks etc. were being illegitimately cornered by domestic and foreign big businesses with the connivance of corrupt ministers and babus, and was determined to expose and fight it. He had deep knowledge of how the system works (or does not work). While being scathing in his criticisms of those who are corrupt, he did not hesitate in befriending honest ministers and officials. Naturally, whistleblowers gravitated towards him, passing on critical information on many issues in public interest, till long after he had retired from parliamentary life. 
As a trade union leader, Dipankarda was very popular among the workers, especially those from the Hindi-speaking region. Being a probashi Bengali since childhoodhe was well versed in Hindi. He could easily communicate with the workers and employees across the organised and unorganised sectors and his penchant for visiting every site of working class action in Delhi’s neighbourhood endeared him to the workers. The valiant workers of Maruti Suzuki would fondly remember his interventions in their recent struggle, especially his critique of the undemocratic Standing Orders issued by the Suzuki management. 
In private conversations, Dipankarda would often invoke late Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar’s advice to him that a good trade union leader is not a rabble rouser but an educator of the working class; who would make them aware of their rights and entitlements and empower them to organize and fight their own battles. He was insistent that the growth of the trade union movement in the private organised sector is vital to the revival of the Left movement, especially in Northern India.  
Though critical of economists (because he thought they lack in “techno-economic” knowledge of specific sectors as well as “accountancy”), Dipankarda had very high regards for Dr. Ashok Mitra. He would often boast of finding a favourable mention in Dr. Mitra’s celebrated biographical narrative Apila-Chapila. He regularly followed Dr. Mitra’s column in the Telegraph and sympathized with many of his arguments on economic policies, industrialization, land acquisition, the state of the Left movement etc. Dipankarda also had valuable and original insights to offer on these crucial issues.  
For Left activists, Dipankarda leaves behind a remarkable legacy. While most MPs and ex-MPs from the Left are known for their honesty and simplicity, Dipankarda’s frugal lifestyle was legendary. He even refused to renovate his apartment in VP House because he considered it as wastage of public money. His self-sufficient bachelor life was an embodiment of simple-living and high thinking. 
Despite being a popular face in TV debates, Dipankarda would avoid participation in such debates unless he felt that the issue was genuine. He had great disdain towards publicity-hungry politicians spending disproportionate amount of time in TV studios, shadow-boxing on inanities. He would repeatedly warn younger activists not to get swayed by the lure of the corporate media. Substance over appearances remained to be his motto, in an era when the latter is often mistaken for the former. 
While bidding farewell to Dipankarda, let us pay tribute to his noble life which was dedicated to the cause of the working class and stood as a shining example of practicing what one preaches.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

                                        Helping Hand by Women Sub-Committee                                                                                                      


     There was a devastating fire accident took place at Rotary Nagar at Mylapore area of Chennai. As per the tradition of our organisation immediate help was arranged for the families who lost their valuables in the devastating fire. On 11.6.2012 this function was arranged by local people and the relief was distributed by COM.S.Ramesh kumar, General Secretary, ICEU, Chennai Division-I, COM.L.Palaniappan, Joint Secretary, SZIEF, and COM.D.Ramesh. Joint Secretary, ICEU, Chennai Division-I. The People suffered the losses thanked our organisation for rendering the help.