College's policy benefits families of dead students

Lala Lajpat Rai College insures all its students, which means families of two students who died in an accident at Marine Drive last year will get compensation next week

Lala Lajpat Rai College insures all its students, which means families of two students who died in an accident at Marine Drive last year will get compensation next week

Surjibhai Gada lost his 20-year-old son, Soumil, when the car he was in met with an accident at Marine Drive on January 1 last year. While he can never get over the loss of his son, the compensation that he'll get next week from an insurance policy taken by Somil's college, Lala Lajpat Rai, will help heal some of the pain.

The parents of Bhavin Gand-hi (20), who had died along with Soumil, too will get the compensation from the college.

Victims of Marine Drive accident

Thanks MiD DAY

Surjibhai learnt about the insurance policy after MiD DAY reported last year that the state government insures every student under the Rajiv Gandhi Suraksha Yojna (see box). While inquiring about this policy the Gadas and Gandhis were told that Lala Lajpat Rai College had also individually insured all its students.

"I came to know about this policy after reading the story in MiD DAY. I don't know when we will get the money under the government scheme, but we will help other children with that amount," said Surjibhai.

Added S N Shetti, principal of Lala College, "We inform students about this policy through the college prospectus and circulars, but parents remain una- ware. We thank MiD DAY for creating awareness about this."
The Gada and Gandhi families have decided to donate some of the compensation amount to orphanages.

The others

However, the parents of the other two students who died with Gada and Gandhi Nitish Damania and Yash
Shah will get the benefits of only the government policy because their college, Hinduja, had not covered their junior college students with an insurance policy.

Nitish's father, Dinesh, said, "The concerned department for Rajiv Gandhi Yojna has informed us that they have forwarded our documents and it will be some time before they are cleared. But unlikeu00a0 Lala Lajpat Rai college, Hinduja College did not insure our kids individually."

Jayesh Patel, vice-principal of Hinduja College, said, "Our junior college students were not insured individually by us, but we will give them an accident insurance cover for the coming academic year."

Govt policy
The Rajiv Gandhi Suraksha Yojna was started in 2003 when the government directed the education department to issue the policy. This year too, the government has issued a policy with United India Insurance Company for the state's 2.42 crore students at Rs 0.70 paise per student.
Between 2003 and 2007, 25,000 students have claimed the policy amount totalling Rs 10.08 crore.