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Pump scam: dark future for blind engineer

By Our Staff Reporter

KOLLAM Aug.12. The pump scam has cast a shadow on the future of a 41-year-old chemical engineer. For Prince Ashok, getting an agency for the cooking gas brand, Indane, purely on merit just two months ago meant a new lease of life for him and his family.

The world suddenly became dark for Mr. Prince when he met with an accident in June 1998 in Thiruvananthapuram. The only ray of hope for him was the gas agency sanctioned to him.

However, he stands to lose his livelihood following the announcement by the Prime Minister last week that all petrol pumps and gas agencies sanctioned after January 2000 would be cancelled.

Mr. Prince was blinded in a head on collision between a KSRTC bus and a jeep he was driving. At that time, he was working as a chemical inspector with the Factories and Boilers Department for over eight years. The wind screen of his jeep was smashed and he lost his eye sight. He lost his right eye and within a few days he lost the vision in his left eye as well.

Though he recovered from the other physical disabilities, Mr. Prince was relying on the slender hope that his left eye could eventually be treated thus recovering at least partial vision. However, that expectation was belied during treatment at a reputed eye hospital at Chennai.

His daughter was just four years at that time. Despite the crushing disappointment, Mr. Prince learned to live again with the support of his wife.

Two years ago following an advertisement in the newspapers, his wife coaxed him to apply for a gas agency. Since his educational background was apt for running an agency and on humanitarian grounds, he was selected from among 100 applicants for an agency at Eravipuram in Kollam city. It was sanctioned to him two months ago. He had also invested his saving for the purpose.

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