Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Death on poll duty would get maximum Rs 10 lakh as compensation: EC

New Delhi, March 17 (ANI): The Election Commission has decided to grant a maximum compensation of Rs. 10,00,000 (a million rupees) to any poll officer in case of death on election duty caused by extremists or unsocial elements. The Commission has recommended a minimum of Rs.500,000 as the amount to be paid to the next of kin of any official in case of death on duty. "If the death is caused due to any violent acts of extremist or unsocial elements such as from road mine explosions, bomb blasts, armed attacks etc., the amount of compensation should be double, i.e. Rs 10 lakh," said an Election Commission official.

In case of permanent disability like loss of limb, eye sight, etc., a minimum ex-gratia payment of Rs 2.5 lakh would be made. However, if such disability is caused by extremist violence, Rs.500,000 would be given to the injured.

The Election Commission, while framing the guidelines, has clearly spelt out that the payment will cover any mishap that occurs during the entire period of election duty - from the time an official leaves residence to report for any poll related duty, including training, to the time he or she returns to residence after discharging poll-related responsibilities.

If any mishap takes place during this period, it should be treated as having occurred on election duty subject to condition that there should be a causal connection between occurrence of death/injury and the election duty.

In the past, the Commission has seen that even in cases of death of polling personnel on election duty, innumerable hurdles in releasing the compensation amount due to them are created by the insurance companies, the EC official said.

In many cases, members of the bereaved family have had to approach the courts seeking relief with regard to payment of the compensation that they genuinely deserved and which should have been released to them forthwith.

Litigation would mean that a good part of the amount that they are supposed to get is already spent on lawyers and court fees apart from the financial hardships that the families would anyway suffer due to the loss of their earning members.

"In any case, it seems the states will end up spending more money on insurance premium than compensation to the affected families," the official said.

There have been many cases in which the state governments entered into MoU with insurance companies for payment of compensation to poll personnel. But the companies had refused payment even in case of death due to heart attack during performance of poll duty, citing the reason that only death caused due to violent incidents were to be covered.

During the upcoming five-phased polls starting April 16, a whooping four million civilian officials besides 2.1 million security personnel for a smooth functioning of the polls. (ANI)



Shatrughan Sinha to contest Lok Sabha elections from Patna Saheb

New Delhi, Mar 17 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shatrughan Sinha will contest from the Patna Saheb in Bihar during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

His name was among 40 BJP candidates announced for contesting elections.

Earlier in the day, the Bollywood star Sinha had a meet with Samajwadi Party’s General Secretary Amar Singh and stated that he did not consider any party or person untouchable.

I will not consider any party or individual untouchable. All are my friends and in every political party I have friends. Amar Singh is my old and best friend,” he told reporters here after his meeting with Amar Singh.

Sinha has been a Rajya Sabha member twice and his 12-year tenure ceased last year after he failed to secure a re-nomination form BJP.

Besides, Shatrughan Sinha, other prominent names declared included that of Rajiv Pratap Rudy (Saran) and Shahnawaz Hussain (Bhagalpur).

India will hold the general elections for 15th Lok Sabha between April 16 and May 13, in which 714 million people will cast their votes. (ANI)


India to become member of Basel Committee, Fin Stability Forum

New Delhi, March 17 (PTI) India would soon become the member of Basel Committee on banking supervision and the Financial Stability Forum, set up by G-7 countries.

The decision to include India in the Basel Committee was taken at a meeting held on March 10-11, where the Committee expanded its membership to many other countries, the Reserve Bank said in a statement issued here today.

Among other countries, which have also been invited and would become members of the Committee, are China, Australia, Brazil, Korea, Mexico and Russia.

In fact, following this, the Basel Committee's governance body would also be enlarged to include the central bank governors and heads of supervision from the new member organisations, it said.

The Basel Committee provides for a forum for regular co-operation on banking supervisory matters. The Committee, headquartered at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland provides to promote and strengthen supervisory and risk management practices globally.

The same committee had come out with the improved risk management norms for banks called Basel-II norms, which India will also adopt.

Besides, India will also become a member of the Financial Stability Forum, which aims at promoting international financial stability through co-operation in the financial market supervision, RBI said. PTI


New Delhi, Jaipur dropped as IPL venues

New Delhi, Mar 17 (PTI) New Delhi, Jaipur and Visakhapatanam have been dropped as venues in the latest revised schedule for the second edition of the Indian Premier League which is still awaiting the green signal from the Home Ministry.

The revised schedule, which was submitted to the Home Ministry today, has left out these three venues as the respective state governments could not guarantee security because of the general elections, IPL sources said today.

The sources said that the new schedule has taken into consideration the security constraints of all the state governments and has been prepared in such a way that it would not hinder the election process.

"We do not expect any problems now. The Home Ministry will consult the state governments and then get back to us," a top IPL official said.

The multi-million dollar League has run rough weather because of security concerns in view of the general elections and the Home Ministry has already rejected two of their earlier schedules.

The rejection of schedules and the Home Ministry's reluctance to provide paramilitary forces for the event had put a serious question mark on the fate of the high-profile events, slated to begin from April 10. PTI

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