Diagnostic facility in Kamareddy asked to pay Rs 3.1L to couple

Commissioner for Consumer Affairs, Food and Civil Supplies CV Anand on Tuesday handed over a cheque of Rs 3.11 lakh as compensation to a couple who complained against a diagnostic facility in Kamareddy district.

Parashuram and Swapna, from Bikkanuru village of the district, alleged that the staff of Sri Venkatsai Scanning and X-ray Centre did not detect a congenital deformity in the spine of their unborn baby girl. Swapna, during her pregnancy, had undergone scanning on multiple occasions at the scanning centre and yet the specialists there were unable to detect the deformity, they alleged.

n May, 2017, Swapna gave birth to a girl at RR Hospital in Kamareddy and immediately after the delivery the doctors said the infant had spinal abnormalities and needed corrective surgeries. The couple visited several super-specialty hospitals in Hyderabad before surgeons at Star Hospitals conducted the procedure.

With the couple ending up spending close to Rs 5 lakh on the surgery, they called up the consumer toll free (1800 42500 333) number of the Civil Supplies Department and submitted a written complaint on the scanning centre.

The Consumer Redressal Forum of the Consumer Affairs, Food and Civil Department arbitrated the couple’s complaint. It sent notices to the scanning centre in December 2017 and within 20 days the facility issued a compensation cheque worth Rs 3.11 lakh. “We are grateful to the Consumer Forum because we did not have the financial resources to pursue a civil case against the diagnostic centre in court. The Consumer Forum officials managed to deliver justice to us,” the couple said.

Ration commodities to be distributed from 1st to 15th of every month

Civil Supplies Departments has taken new reforms to ensure beneficiaries must get ration supply from 1st of every month in this New Year. For this major changes are been taken in Transportation, Closing Balance (CB) and Release Order (RO) dates.

Commissioner for Civil Supplies C.V. Anand said from now onwards we will ensure that beneficiaries will get their commodities from 1st of every month by using modern technology. Immediately it will come to effect in the districts where ePos is in implementation. From 1st to 15th of every month commodities will be distributed at Ration shops. 

On 16th commodities will be provided to districts from Civil Supplies Head Office. 

For this ration dealers have to pay DD’s between 16th & 18th at Mee Seva Centres. Regional ACSO’s / MRO’s will immediately issue Release Orders of the Dealers who paid DD’s to the Mandal Level Stockist (MLS) Point. 

As soon as godown incharge receives release order commodity distribution will start. Stage-II transporters will deliver stock from MLS points to ration shops from 16th to 30th of every month. 

Stage-I transport contractors will carry commodities to Civil Supplies Mandal Level godowns from 1st to 15th of every month.

Commissioner suggested Joint Collectors to take special attention on this new policy. Joint Collectors should conduct regular meetings every month with DCSO’s, ACSO’s, Civil Supply Department District Managers, Deputy Tahasildars, Enforcement Teams, Stage-I, Stage-II Contractors, Godown incharges. As per government initiatives steps should be taken to every eligible beneficiary to avail commodities.

Civil Supplies Dept gear up to deal with ration dealers' strike

Taking a serious note on the strike call given by ration dealers, the Telangana Government has initiated measures to deal with the situation.

The State Government has decided to suspend the dealers who till now not paid DD’s and not distributing commodities. The Civil Supplies Department started the process of listing out the dealers who are participating in the strike and also initiated officials district to collect wise the data of the participants. As per the orders from Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao, the Civil Supplies Department has declared Saturday (2nd of December) as the last date for the ration dealers for depositing DD’s for ration commodities, after that defaulters would be suspended.

Commissioner for Civil Supplies C.V. Anand issued orders to district Collectors and Joint Collectors to appoint new dealers to fill up the vacant positions. Also collect the data of the members participating in the strike and the details of the dealers who have deposited DD’s but are not distributing commodities to common people. He also suggested officials to take alternative measures in the major areas where strike is in practice and preparations to be made to distribute commodities to the people without any disturbances.

Service charge on bills illegal: C.V.Anand

Civil Supplies Commissioner C.V. Anand on Saturday convened a meeting with representatives of hotels association where he warned them that imposition of service charge on bills handed out to customers at hotels and restaurants was illegal.

Payment of service charge by customers was voluntary because it was supposed to be a tip for the service that they received from hotels and restaurants. But, a number of complaints were received in the National Consumer Helpline that hotels and restaurants included ‘service charge’ as a separate head in the bill to collect 5 to 20% of value of food items consumed in lieu of tips, a release said.

Therefore, Mr. Anand told the representatives, the bills may clearly mention service charge as voluntary. The space against the head ‘service charge’ in the bill may be left blank for the customers to fill and pay the amount that they quoted.

The legal metrology department would conduct raids on hotels and restaurants from Monday to check if the amount was continued to be collected despite Saturday’s firm instructions. Mr. Anand warned the representatives that tips or gratuity paid by customers towards hospitality received by them was a separate transaction between them and hotel staff at the discretion of customers.

Raids against GST frauds to be intensified

Legal Metrology Department has intensified the raids against GST fraud cases with the Commissioner for Civil Supplies and Legal Metrology Controller C.V. Anand ordering officials to make special and detailed checks on all the complaints for another week.

So far, 1,062 cases have been booked and Rs.10.62 lakhs penalty has been imposed while few more cases were in trail stage, Anand said in a press release issued here on Sunday. Most cases registered for charging GST on MRP were in Hyderabad and these include against Hyderabad Central Mall, PVR Cinemas, KFC, Mc Donald, Prasads Imax, Subway Food Court, Sujana Mall in Kukatpally, Blue Fox Restaurant, Shanbagh, Golconda Hotel and others, he said.

Stating that the department would continue to intensify action on the GST frauds, Anand said penalty from Rs.2,000 to Rs.25,000 would be levied against those caught for the first time for charging more than MRP with the penalty getting doubled for those caught the second time.

Complaints of GST frauds were coming not only about small traders but even big shopping malls and multiplexes. Charging GST on MRP, non GST items and selling on higher prices in the GST were reported in these raids. In last six days Legal Metrology Department conducted more than 5000 raids and made special and detailed checks in malls, multiplexes, star hotels, restaurants, bars, sweet houses and other business points, the press release added.