When PF Dept came to rescue of Bihar migrant woman

Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, November 19

The Employees Provident Fund Department came as a godsend for a widow from Bihar whose husband had died in a blast at an automobile factory in Phase 8, Focal Point, here.

The department took an initiative after taking cognisance of the news of the blast and traced the woman in Bihar to provide her monetary compensation of more than Rs 2.5 lakh.

Dheeraj Gupta, regional PF Commissioner, and Sumeet Singh, regional PF Commissioner-2, addressed a press conference regarding the matter.

Gupta said the death claim cell had seen news of the accidental death of Shiv Kumar at the Highway Industries factory. After taking cognisance of the published news, the cell gathered preliminary information about the deceased worker and the company details.

A PF inspector was deputed to get details from the establishment and guide the widow about the EPF benefits and complete the necessary paper work.

Naveen Verma, HR head of Highway Industries, Ludhiana, provided the necessary details about the deceased worker and his family. A PF official met the widow and his son and gave detailed information and guidance to the widow and helped her to file claim in the EPF office.

Gupta said the bereaved family was guided on getting all due legal benefits such as pension, PF, Employees Provident Fund and Employees Deposit Linked Insurance (EDLI).

“The regional office has created a special death claim cell which scrutinises newspapers on a daily basis for information about any incident or accident in industries. The cell helps the families of deceased members in getting their aadhaar cards, opening of bank accounts, filling of forms, getting the death certificate from Nagar Nigam, getting their photo clicked and finally getting their claim attested by their employer,” added Gupta.

The EPF office Ludhiana acted upon the news of the worker’s death in Ludhiana as per the directions issued by the Central PF Commissioner Sunil Barthwal who asked to take up the cases of industrial deaths on a priority basis by hand holding the family of the deceased worker if he was eligible for benefits under EPF & MP Act, 1952, said Gupta.

An amount of Rs 2,08937 had been settled as Employees Deposit Linked Insurance and Rs 44,114 as EPF accumulation in favour to widow Sunita Devi. They will also get the widow pension for Rs 2,326 and children pension for Rs 582.

Sunita, meanwhile, extended her gratitude to the PF Department for monetary compensation as her husband was the sole bread-winner in the family. She said one of her sons was handicapped.

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