All insured vehicles will get their amount: M B Patil

BENGALURU:  Home Minister M B Patil has assured owners who lost their vehicles in the fire at the Aero India 2019 parking lot, on February 23, that they would get their insured amount for the vehicle.
On Tuesday, a few of them got cheques from the insurance company, which was handed over by the minister at Vidhana Soudha.Patil, along with Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar and Additional Chief Secretary to Government Home Department, Rajneesh Goel conducted a review meeting with various stake holders.

The home minister said 277 cars were burnt, of which 251 were completely charred. Out of the 251 cars, owners of 60 vehicles are not able to identify their cars, as the engine and chassis are burnt beyond recognition. The process of identifying is underway. “Out of the many insurance companies, Oriental Insurance Company had 11 claims, of which they settled 10, and have got their insured amount paid. The remaining cars will also be looked into at the earliest,’’ he said.

On February 23, nearly 300 cars parked in a 2000-capacity parking ground, located behind the residential quarters of the Air Force Station, Yelahanka, were gutted after the fire spread. The probe is yet to determine what exactly started the fire.

Even though, the exact cause of the fire is yet to be verified, it is speculated that the fire was caused due to a lit bidi or cigarette bud, that was carelessly thrown on the dry grass. When Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman visited the spot, she was told by officials that the fire was likely caused due to an overheated exhaust pipe of a vehicle coming in contact with the dry grass.

Defence probe continues 
The Defence Minister, when asked about the probe on the fire incident, said that since the land where the vehicles were parked belong to the Ministry of Defence, the state government cannot intervene. The defence is conducting the probe. 

Owners of cars receive insured amount
At the event, Subodith who owned Maruti Dzire, which was gutted in the fire, got his insurance amount of Rs 6.92 lakh. “It’s a 2018 model. I had paid some Rs 9 lakh, including road tax. But I got my complete insured amount. After the incident, I thought we would have to run from one place to another to get the insured amount,’’ he said.  Ramakanth from Orissa too got his insured amount of Rs 15.95 lakh for his gutted Mahindra XUV.

Committed to implementing Auradkar panel report: Patil 
Home Minister M B Patil on Tuesday reiterated that the state government was committed to implementing the recommendations of the Additional Director General of Police Raghavendra Auradkar committee on police reforms He told reporters here on Tuesday that he has conveyed the importance of implementing the recommendations to Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy. “We have sought his appointment as we want to make a presentation to him on the Auradkar committee report,’’ he said.  Patil said that he was aware of the pay disparity between police personnel and employees of other government departments.  “This will be sorted out. We are committed to the same,” he said.