SpeakUp

New Delhi, 3 June, 2022: Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Piyush Goyal on Friday said that restaurants cannot add service charges to food bills at their discretion and that the choice of paying tips lies with consumers. He added that restaurant owners are free to hike the prices of their food menu to be able to pay higher salaries to their employees. Restaurant industry bodies have been arguing that the amount collected through service charges is meant for the benefit of the staff. “You (restaurants) cannot just add a service charge on a bill… If you feel that some more benefits are to be given to employees, it cannot be forced on customers. You can raise prices to give hikes, “Goyal said in an interaction with the media on Thursday. He added that the Department of Consumer Affairs has been getting complaints from consumers against service charges levied by restaurants and hotels on the National Consumer Helpline. ‘No price controls’ He added that restaurants can hike salaries of employees’ and increase the rates of their menus as there are no price controls. “ You are free to give raises to employees and increase rates. But if there is a hidden cost, how will the people (consumers) know the real price? “he said. Terming service charges as an “unfair trade practice”, the Department of Consumer Affairs said that it will be coming up with a “robust framework” to protect consumer interests. This statement came after DoCA met with restaurant industry stakeholders to discuss various issues related to service charges. This include issues such as compulsory levy of service charges, adding the charge by default without the express consent of the consumer, suppressing that such a charge is optional and voluntary, and embarrassing consumers if they resist paying such a charge. Source: Thehindubusinessline.com

Third-party smartphone apps for connected cars belonging to top brands like Tesla, Nissan, Renault, Ford, and Volkswagen are using the vehicle owners’ credentials without asking for their consent, a new report claimed on Friday. On top of this, one in five of applications have no contact information, which makes it impossible to report a problem, according to Kaspersky’s ‘Connected Apps’ report which analysed 69 popular third-party mobile apps designed to control connected cars. “The benefits of a connected world are countless. However, it is important to note that this is still a developing industry, which carries certain risks,” said Sergey Zorin, Head of Kaspersky Transportation Security. “Unfortunately, not all developers take a responsible approach when it comes to data storage and collection, which results in users exposing their personal information. This data may further be sold on the dark web and end up in untrustful hands,” he warned. Cybercriminals might not only steal your data and personal credentials but also gain access to your vehicle – and that might lead to physical threats. Connected automotive applications allow users to remotely control their vehicles by locking or unlocking the doors, adjusting climate control, starting and stopping the engine, etc. Even though most car manufacturers have their own legitimate applications for the cars they make, third-party apps designed by mobile developers are also very popular among users as they may offer unique features that have not yet been introduced by the vehicle manufacturer. The third-party applications analysed by Kaspersky cover almost all major vehicle brands, with Tesla, Nissan, Renault, Ford and Volkswagen in the top-5 cars most often controlled by such apps. “However, these applications are not entirely safe to use,” claim Kaspersky researchers. They found that more than half of the applications don’t warn about the risks of using the owner’s account from the original automaker’s service. Moreover, every fifth application does not have information on how to contact the developer or give feedback, making it impossible to report a problem or request more information on the app’s privacy policy. “It is also worth noting that 46 of the 69 applications are either free of charge or offer a demo mode. This has contributed to such applications being downloaded from the Google Play Store more than 239,000 times, which makes you wonder how many people are giving strangers free access to their cars,” the report mentioned. Source: IANS

A significant difference between the real-world and technology-enabled virtual world is that things are not what we expect or want them to be. Especially when you are on social media, not everyone you come across may be a real person and therein lies the big danger. The trust factor should be factored out in the virtual world, or each experience there will end up as a hard lesson. Consider this example of an official who transferred Rs29 lakh to someone who had used the profile photo of a company’s managing director (MD) on WhatsApp. Believing in WhatsApp Profile Photo Cost Rs28 Lakh! The cybercrime department of the Bengaluru police is searching for a person who posed as the managing director (MD) of a private company and hoodwinked its human resources (HR) manager into transferring Rs28.8 lakh online. In his complaint, Nirmal Jain, who owns the company, has said that the fraudster sent a WhatsApp message to Thirupathi Rao, the HR manager, claiming to be Paras Jain, the MD. “The WhatsApp profile contained the MD’s photograph and the message said that it was his personal number and that he was in a meeting and was not to be disturbed. The person then asked Mr Rao to transfer money to three bank accounts online on an emergency basis. Mr Rao carried out the instructions and transferred Rs28,89,807 to the private bank account numbers mentioned in the message. The fraud came to light when he informed the senior officials about the transactions,” says a report from The Hindu. This incident raises many questions about whose money was transferred and the gullibility of the HR manager but highlights why profile photos posted on social media, and even WhatsApp numbers, may be fake. Ideally, if you receive threats or requests from unknown numbers,  you can report the person and block the number on WhatsApp. We are relatively lucky in India that the deepfakes are not yet duping people in a serious way. Deepfakes use existing image or video and replace them with someone else’s likeness using artificial neural networks to create an alternative and unreal episode. Deepfake audio, or even video, can be used for calling gullible users and requesting them to transfer funds, or to accompany strangers by faking an emergency. This is more like a sophisticated version of hacking into email accounts and seeking funds from friends and acquaintances of the user through ’emergency’ emails. (Read: How To Protect Your Digital Life in 2020, Especially from Deepfakes) Calling an unknown sender can sometimes clarify things, but there is also a danger that you may be further duped by smooth talk. Being vigilant and verifying who you engage with is imperative. Fake Chopper Ride for ‘Char Dham Yatra’! Even as the tourism industry is trying hard to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, scamsters are finding new opportunities to dupe travellers. Over a dozen people have been fooled by a fake website that offered a chopper ride for ‘Char Dham Yatra’ in Uttarakhand. In the past month alone, there have been five cases reported to Lucknow cyber cell and 10 at Uttar Pradesh (UP) cyber police. According to one such victim, she paid Rs50,000 for a helicopter ride to the places of pilgrimage, but she and her family members were not allowed to board the copter in Dehradun. The tickets that she had ‘booked’ were fake! She had booked them from a person claiming to be an agent of Pawan Hans Ltd from Dehradun. The scamster took copies of the family’s Aadhaar, passport and COVID-19 vaccination certificates and collected Rs50,000 for the tickets. He then sent tickets for the helicopter ride on WhatsApp, but they turned out to be fake. The important lesson here is not to use the services of an unknown third party without verification. And as far as the Char Dham Yatra is concerned, there is an authorised helicopter service provided by the tourism department. Manipulation of International Calls Using Local SIMs The Karnataka police have busted a gang with the arrest of its six members on charges of converting international calls from Middle-East countries to local calls, causing loss to the state exchequer. The police have seized 16 SIM box devices, two trunk call devices for session initiation protocol (SIP), nine primary rate interface (PRI) devices, five laptops, six routers, and 205 BSNL SIM cards used to convert international calls into local calls. SIP trunks are basically virtual phone lines that enable users to make and receive phone calls over the internet to anyone in the world with a phone number. Without going into technical details, the worrying aspect of this fraud is the number of SIMs obtained and used by the gang. They bought BSNL SIM cards from UP, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and other states. With a copy of Aadhaar, it has become relatively easy to get a SIM card from a vendor. And when Aadhaar is used, know-your-customer (KYC) checks followed by the mobile service providers are minimal. Many fraudster gangs buy SIMs in bulk mostly using Aadhaar copies obtained from several paid sources. In most cases, people whose Aadhaar is used to buy the SIM are clueless and know about this only when the police reach their homes. Remember Mumbai-based Ameya Dhapre and how his life has been turned upside-down ever since someone posted a copy of his Aadhaar on the web? Do read about it here Aadhaar Nightmares Coming True. How Ameya Dhapre Is Enduring ‘Living Hell’ with His Aadhaar: Report Loan Apps Continue to Harass Borrowers When the borrower uses a shortcut while borrowing money from lenders, it is bound to have consequences. It is best explained by the issues created by loan apps that provide the small loan in easy ways. However, the borrower often fails to note the higher interest rates and harassment that follows in case of even a single default in repayment. Loan apps access a borrower’s phone and siphon up contacts, photos, text messages, and even documents stored. Mumbai

Over the years, there has been a big increase in the number of accidents related to electricity in absolute and per capita terms. Consumers from rural areas are major victims of these accidents, primarily caused due to contact with conductors in the distribution system or at non-industrial consumer locations. Poor design, sub-standard construction, poor maintenance and lack of safety awareness contribute to the increase of accidents, finds a discussion paper published by Pune-based energy group Prayas. Sreekumar Nhalur, the author of the paper, says, “Since most accidents occur in the distribution system, distribution companies (DISCOMs) have the highest role to play in reducing accidents. But for them, improving financial health, reducing energy losses and providing reliable power to consumers is a higher priority. Safety is not high in their performance metric. National policies or initiatives do not currently have any safety components. Therefore, electricity safety is tragically slipping through governance gaps.” According to the paper, accident reduction requires technical and management measures over a period of many years. It says, “Specific safety initiatives by the central government, increased priority to safety by distribution companies, strengthening the role of state electrical inspectorates, proactive efforts by electricity regulators to ensure implementation of safety measures and building safety awareness in the general public are crucial if accidents have to be reduced.” “The Central Electricity Authority of India (CEA), some utilities, State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERCs), professional organisations and consumer organisations have initiated small steps to reduce accidents, but these need to be significantly strengthened. Only concerted efforts by all sector actors over a period of few years can reverse the trend and bring down the number and rate of accidents,” Mr Nhalur says. The major immediate cause of accidents is contact with live conductors, the discussion paper points out, adding, “Root causes include low priority to safety, bad design, poor maintenance, unauthorised repair, bad quality earthing, and inadequate protection systems. Addressing the root causes requires an understanding of the safety governance structure and identifying the gaps.” As per the 2020 Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI) report, 15,258 people died from electrical shocks and fires between January and December. CEA reports 7,717 fatal human accidents in FY19-20. Fatalities per 100,000 population, also called as fatality rate, is the most used parameter to compare different accident causes or geographies. In India, the fatality rate has been increasing over the years and is a little above 1, as per ADSI data and around 0.6 as per CEA data in 2020. Mr Nhalur writes, “The numbers are vastly different, perhaps due to data collection and reporting issues, which is an area of major concern. Whatever be the actual numbers, a worrying trend is that the number of accidents and also accidents normalised with parameters like population, number of consumers or energy handled, have been steadily increasing over the years.” Electricity systems up to the point of supply (generation, transmission and distribution) or end-use (consumer premises), can cause electric shocks (also called electrocution) and fires due to electrical faults. These, in turn, lead to human or animal injuries, deaths, and appliance or property damage.  The discussion paper “Electricity safety: Tragically falling through the governance gaps” also points out that most of the electrical accidents in India happen in rural areas and affect the public. “They occur mostly in the distribution system or at non-industrial consumer locations. Therefore, accident reduction is a public challenge and efforts should focus on rural areas and distribution systems.” A state-wise analysis of accidents indicates that 85% of the accidents occur in 11 states, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh. Within the states, there is variation in the number of accidents based on consumer-mix, state of maintenance of the distribution network, climatic conditions and safety awareness. According to the paper, electricity safety is a public interest challenge which can be met only through coordinated action involving all sector actors. “There is scope to improve the current safety regulations. But the implementation of the current safety regulatory regime can be significantly tightened through better data collection, introducing safety aspects in national programs, strengthening safety institutions, developing safety metrics for DISCOMs, involving public and professionals in safety initiatives and utilising technological innovations.” “The need of the hour is a concrete accident reduction program in the distribution sector, with a clear scope of work, sufficient resource allocation and robust monitoring and verification mechanism. Only this can ensure that our electricity supply is not only universal, affordable and good quality but also safe,” it concludes. Source: Moneylife

After getting more than 3,500 grievances against Swiggy and Zomato on its consumer helpline, the Department of Consumer Affairs on Monday directed the two major e-commerce food business operators (FBOs) to furnish, within 15 days, ways to better address those problems. The e-commerce FBOs were also directed by the Department to transparently show consumers the breakup of all charges included in the order amount such as delivery charges, packaging charges, taxes, surge pricing etc. The direction to furnish the current framework as well as a proposal on improving the consumer grievance redressal mechanism within 15 days was given during a meeting chaired by Secretary, Consumer Affairs, Rohit Kumar Singh with the major e-commerce food business operators, to discuss pertinent issues which affect consumers in this sector. The meeting was informed that during the last 12 months, over 3,631 grievances were registered on the National Consumer Helpline (1915) against Swiggy and 2,828 against Zomato. For Swiggy, it included the maximum 22 per cent for deficiency in services (803 complaints), followed by 17 per cent for non/delay in delivery of products (628 complaints) along with delivery of defective/damaged product (456 complaints or 13 per cent), delivery of wrong products (401 complaints), paid amount not refunded (391 complaints), product/product accessories missing (240 complaints), charging more than MRP (213 complaints), and non-veg food delivered instead of veg and vice versa (105 complaints). For Zomato, deficiency in services topped the list too at 25 per cent (707 complaints) followed 18 per cent for delivery of defective/damaged product (499 complaints) along with non/delay in delivery of product (319 complaints), paid amount not refunded (307 complaints), and delivery of wrong products (298 complaints). All these major issues raised by the consumers on the National Consumer Helpline were discussed. It also included inconsistency in the delivery time shown to consumers at the time of placing an order and the time at which the order is actually delivered, and absence of any mechanism to separate genuine reviews from fake ones. The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) raised the issue of customer information not being shared by the e-commerce FBOs with the restaurants, which impacts their ability to serve the consumer needs better. “Further, delivery charges are determined and levied by the latter. Further, a commission of around 20 per cent is also charged by the online FBOs on each order,” it said. “Platforms must also show individual consumer reviews transparently and refrain from showing only the aggregation of reviews. The right of choice for a consumer should be respected and the e-commerce FBOs were advised to allow consumers the choice to share their contact information with the restaurants, if the consumers want so,” the government said. The e-commerce FBOs observed that prices of food items are decided by the restaurants and they have a grievance redressal mechanism in place which does have a scope for improvement considering the number and nature of grievances registered by the consumers, a government statement said.  Source: IANS

To ensure speedy redressal of consumer complaints, the department of consumer affairs on Friday asked registrars and presidents of national, state, and district commissions not to grant adjournment for more than one month to ensure adhering to the timelines provided under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. In case of any delay in resolving the complaints beyond two months, due to adjournment requests, the commission may consider imposing costs on parties, it said. In his letter, consumer affairs secretary, Rohit Kumar Singh emphasised on inexpensive, hassle-free and speedy justice to the consumers. “Frequent and long adjournments not only denies a consumer his right to be heard and seek redressal, but also takes away the spirit of enactment which the legislature intended. Therefore, Consumer Commissions are requested to ensure that in no circumstance adjournment for a long period is provided. Further, in case of more than two requests of adjournment by either parties, Consumer Commissions may, as a measure of deterrence, impose costs on parties,” he wrote. Drawing attention of the consumer commissions on the procedure on admission of a complaint as provided under Section 38(7) of the Act, he said that every complaint is required to be disposed of as expeditiously as possible and endeavour shall be made to decide the complaint within a period of three months from the date of receipt of notice by opposite party where the complaint does not require analysis or testing of commodities, and within five months if it requires analysis or testing of commodities. Further, it said that the Act also stipulates that no adjournment shall ordinarily be granted by consumer commissions, unless sufficient cause is shown and the reasons for grant of adjournment have been recorded in writing. The commissions are also empowered to make such orders as to the costs occasioned by the adjournment. The department has also written to the chief secretaries of all states/UTs and all consumer commissions laying stress on encouraging consumers to file their complaints through the e-daakhil portal. Source: IANS

Instead of the ‘Health Star Ratings’ on junk food, as proposed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which will “mislead the consumers”, the Centre for Science & Environment (CSE) on Wednesday demanded that warnings about unhealthy levels of salt, sugar, and fat be featured instead. “Health Star Ratings are designed by the powerful food industry to mislead the consumer. By pushing these, the FSSAI will give license to glorify junk foods, which is the opposite of what should be done. India can’t afford the epidemic of obesity and non-communicable diseases. It is time the Indian consumer is warned about how bad and unhealthy junk food is,” CSE Director General Sunita Narain said. She was leading the expert deliberation on the aNeed for front-of-pack warning labels on ultra-processed junk foods at Nimli as part of a workshop on food safety and junk food labelling, a statement said here. Front-of-pack labelling on packaged foods was first recommended by an FSSAI-led committee formed in 2013 (CSE was part of this committee). The FSSAI then came up with a draft regulation in 2018, which had strict thresholds – limits to know unhealthy levels – based on those developed by the WHO for countries like India in the South-East Asia Region. “Due to industry pressure, FSSAI came up with another draft in 2019. The food industry was still not pleased and this draft was repealed. From January-June 2021, stakeholder consultations were held on the labelling design to be adopted, thresholds to make applicable and nutrients to be displayed. The latest consultation took place in February 2022, when it was made clear that FSSAI plans to go ahead with the “Health Star Rating’,” the CSE statement said. “The sole objective of the stakeholder consultations, which were heavily dominated by the packaged food industry, was to come up with a labelling system, which is industry-friendly,” said CSE’s Programme Director, Sustainable Food Systems, Amit Khurana. Health Star Rating is a labelling system which includes depiction of 1 to 5 stars on packaged foods. These stars are depicted based on an algorithm at the back-end, which is not known to consumers. “Given all the evidence, if front-of-pack labelling are to cater primarily to public health goals, they must take the form of warning labels and not health star ratings,” reiterated Vandana Prasad, a community paediatrician, Public Health Resource Network, Delhi. “We hope the FSSAI will withstand the pressure of food processing companies and meet this requirement urgently.” Source: Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from IANS and As a source and news provider, IANS is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article.

A customer has sent a takedown notice to Ola Electric for publishing the electric two-scooter’s telemetry data on social media, after the e-scooter met with an accident in Guwahati, injuring the rider. Balwant Singh from Guwahati had tweeted on April 15 that his son had met with an accident “due to fault in regenerative braking where on a speed breaker, instead of slowing, the scooter accelerated, sending so much torque that he had an accident”. The ride-hailing major said last week that its investigation showed the rider was overspeeding. “My notice toA @OlaElectric to immediately take down my telemetry data which they have published in public without my consent violating privacy laws & the graphs whose authenticity has not been verified by me/law agencies. Failure to do so, I will take legal action against @bhash,” Balwant Singh tweeted, with a screenshot of the takedown notice. Ola said it did a thorough investigation of the accident and the “data clearly shows that the rider was overspeeding throughout the night and that he braked in panic, thereby losing control of the vehicle. There was nothing wrong with the vehicle”. The accident happened on March 26 when Balwant Singh’s son was driving an Ola S1 Pro. “The scooter went airborne before crashing and skidding. My son was hospitalised on March 26 and had a fracture in left hand and 16 stitches in right hand due to a fault in Ola S1 Pro,” tweeted Balwant Singh. Ola had said that the scooter’s speed on the night of the accident was between 95 kmph and 115 kmph. At the time of the accident, three brakes were applied together — front, rear and regenerative — bringing the speed from 80 kmph to 0 kmph in 3 seconds. Ola Electric has voluntarily recalled 1,441 e-scooters as a pre-emptive measure to conduct a detailed health check of the concerned batch. The company said that its internal investigation into the March 26 incident when an Ola S1 Pro e-scooter caught fire in Pune has revealed that the “thermal incident was an isolated one”. Source: Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from IANS. As a source and news provider, IANS is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article.

All over the world, SMS phishing attacks, now called ‘smishing’ are on the rise. While SMSs claiming to originate with a bank are the most tried and tested ploy of fraudsters in India, they are also using such expressions as ‘Fedex package delivered’ or ‘Thank you for paying your bill, here is a free gift for you’—to lure unsuspecting people. We will also see, how a knowledgeable person can be persuaded to transfer money to an unknown person and get duped. Previous week we read about how people, particularly senior citizens, are being targeted and lured into clicking links received in an SMS, which in fact is a trap laid by fraudsters. Well, this con game is not confined to India. ‘Smishing’ is fast becoming a smash hit among fraudsters across the world. Take a look at some frauds reported this week:  Smishing Fraud Continues One Micky Kashyap posted a message on Twitter saying, “I keep getting these scam massages somehow. Tried to mark spam on messages but did not work because it always comes from a new number, even though I never played rummy or anything.” The SMSs he is talking about are known as click baits. In this type of scam, the fraudsters try to lure users into clicking the link in the SMS under the pretext of verifying the identity of a beneficiary of  lottery money or other such bonanza. Micky was promised Rs2,000 bonus in his rummy account, provided he clicked on the link. Further, these SMSs are sent from different numbers. This makes it difficult for anyone to block numbers of fraudsters. I still keep wondering how these mobile numbers are even allotted. If you and I want a mobile number, the telcos would make us dance over the know-your-customer (KYC) norms. How is it then that these fraudsters are able to obtain so many numbers? Also, once used, they throw away the SIMs and use new ones. Is the telecom regulator keeping an eye on these bulk SIM purchases? I doubt. IAF Wing Commander Duped of Rs50,000 in Rental Fraud A wing commander with the Indian Air Force (IAF), inspite being well-educated and probably aware about cheating and frauds, sent Rs25,000 twice to a fraudster just because he wanted to rent out her father’s flat! I mean, whatever the fraudster may be saying with his sweet tounge, how can anyone send as much as Rs25,000 twice to any unknown person? The Times of India reports the wing commander lost Rs50,000 after she recently posted an advertisement on a property website to rent her father’s flat in New Delhi’s Dwarka locality. Posing as Subedar Randeep Singh from the Indian Army, the fraudster called her to ask for the flat on rent and agreed to pay Rs12,500 per month rental. He also agreed to pay two months’ rent in advance and asked the wing commander to transfer Re1 to his wallet. Once she did that, he transferred Rs2 back. However, he then said that he could not transfer Rs25,000 and asked the lady officer to transfer the same amount to him, after which he would transfer Rs50,000 back to her, which would include her Rs25,000. After she did that, he claimed that he did not receive the money, and requested her to again transfer Rs25,000. After sending Rs25,000 twice, the lady officer realised that she has been duped and then filed a complaint to her nearest police station, the report says. Greed is certainly a very bad thing as the wing commander would have realised after losing Rs50,000. Most important lesson from this is never-ever send money through wallet to any unknown person or share your wallet details so that he/she can send you money.   Cyber Criminals Targeting Janata Darbar Complainants in Bihar Cyber fraudsters are now targeting complainants at the Bihar chief minister (CM)’s Janata Darbars. The conmen are using mimicry artists to impersonate CM Nitish Kumar’s voice to demand money from the complainants as a prerequisite to address their grievances. One Mintu Upadhyay from Muzaffarpur filed a complaint at the district magistrate (DM)’s office about the demands being made. He says, “I filed an online application for hearing in the Janata Darbar on 8 April 2022. I have not received any calls from the Janata Darbar but I received two calls from fraudsters. The first call was received on 14th April and the second one on 4 May 2022. On both occasions, the caller’s  voice appeared to be that of of CM Nitish Kumar and he asked for Rs5,500 be deposited in an account as registration fee for the issue to be addressed in 10 days.” There is, in fact, no fee for registration or for hearing of complaints in the CM’s Janata Darbar in Bihar. What is not known is, how the callers came to know about the complaint filed by Mr Upadhyay and how they obtained his mobile number. The DM’s office has forwarded the case to the cybercell for investigation. YouTuber, Father Held for Cheating Woman for Rs35.15 Lakh in Delhi The crime branch of Delhi police arrested a YouTuber who runs the YouTube channel ‘ggg productions’ and his father for allegedly cheating a businesswoman of Rs35.15 lakh on the pretext of helping her get an allotment of a petrol pump. In her complaint, the lady says both of them flaunted their high-profile connections and induced her to pay them Rs35.15 lakh for the allotment of an IOCL petrol pump and for the acquisition of land for the same purpose from the Delhi Waqf Board. The truth is that in India, petrol pumps are allotted by oil marketing companies (OMCs) and they all follow a stipulated process. This includes newspaper advertisements or publishing information on the OMC websites. No private individual is authorised to offer such an allotment of a petrol pump, so anybody receiving such a call must necessarily see it as a trap and must must hold on tight to one’s wallet. Years ago, there was a similar

In what is perhaps a first, State Bank of India (SBI) has agreed to reimburse the medical expenses of a customer who fell from an unstable ladder at a bank branch in Mumbai leading to severe injuries, surgery and hospitalisation. The Bank paid, only on the intervention of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) at the highest level. Ironically, after having first rejected his claim and after the banking ombudsman too had rejected his claim for reimbursement. Unfortunately, there has been no compensation for the dogged battle fought by the customer with support from Moneylife Foundation. Readers may recall our article, earlier this month, about how how DS Ranga Rao, 71, a retired intelligence bureau (IB) officer, was fighting a dogged battle with State Bank of India (SBI) to even acknowledge the negligence which caused him to suffer a fall from an unsuitable ladder, leading to severe injuries and medical treatment. It may be recalled that Mr Rao’s claim for reimbursement of medical expenses had been rejected by both the SBI as well as the banking ombudsman without even an effort to speak to him. A top insurance expert, Mr Shrirang Samant told Moneylife that the Public Liability Act makes public liability insurance mandatory for all organisations. The concerned bank would have substantial insurance under the Act. Unfortunately, the customer was still denied the claim until the matter was taking up with RBI, at the highest level, after pointing to the Public Liability Act. SBI has paid over Rs5 lakhs to Mr Rao as reimbursement, which is lower than his costs. Worse, the disability he suffered due to the fall is permanent and is a fit case for granting him compensation, which has still been ignored by the Bank and could entail another legal battle for consumer action. Mr Rao says, “Moneylife Foundation has been the pillar of support for me and I thank them for their help.”  Mr Rao’s dogged battle will  serve as a template for such cases where customers are put to risk or injured due to actions or negligence by a bank, or any other organisation or establishment. Moneylife Foundation has requested RBI to announce a set of standard operating procedure (SOPs) to be followed when customers are injured while at a bank. The banking ombudsman, which has once again demonstrated little understanding of its role in protecting customers, also needs to be instructed on the handling of such cases. After all, this is not a stray case. Only recently the media reported the case of an 80-year-old who ended up locked overnight in a bank branch due to similar negligence. There will be hundreds of other cases where customers do not know they have a right to medical reimbursement or have their claims rejected in the absence of clarity from the banking regulator. We hope this will lead to a policy or circular from RBI so that each individual does not need to go through such a harrowing fight. That would be a great pro-customer initiative from the banking regulator. Source: Moneylife