No clarity on premium refund, RGI less likely to return money

Insurance Scam

SRINAGAR:Following the cancellation of Mediclaim Health Insurance scheme by Governor Satya Pal Malik after finding “some bungling” in it, there has been no communication from the state government to its employees about the return of their monthly premium that were detected from their salaries as a first instalment.

Sources told The News Now that the contract was awarded to AnilAmbani's Reliance General
Insurance which is likely to approach the Court to settle the issue with the state government.

Sources said the Reliance is also unlikely to return Rs 50 crore which was paid to them in advance.

“The Reliance as per the law books has done nothing wrong. They have got the contract by fulfilling all the set parameters. So, it is unlikely that they will return the paid money,” sources said.

“If employees are demanding the return of their deducted premium it will be a burden on state exchequer,” they said.

The state government has already deducted Rs 7,78,250,000 from government employees.
The amount include Rs 7,70,000,000 deducted from 3.50 lakh employees and Rs 82,50,000 from 1500 pensioners.

The cancellation of Mediclaim Health Insurance has put many government employees in a fix, who were demanding an immediate return of their premium with interest.

On October 27, Malik after finding the scheme full of fraud” and its implementation “erroneous” had ordered foreclosure of the contract with Reliance General Insurance and asked the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to probe the matter.

The decision comes after the mandatory Reliance insurance for the state government employees and pensioners had sparked a row.

Talking to The News Now, President of Civil Secretariat Non-Gazetted Employees Union, Ghulam Rasool Mir said that after the cancellation of the scheme, their first premium which was Rs 22,000 for working employees and Rs 5,500 for pensioners is yet to be returned.

“We have no idea, what is going on. Till date there has been no communication from the administration on this matter,” Mir said, who also heads J&K Civil Secretariat Employees Coordination Committee.

Soon after Malik was appointed Governor, the contract for providing insurance to 3.5 lakh regular employees of the State was awarded to Reliance General lnsurance Company (RGIC) Ltd.

It was mandatory for all State government employees – gazetted and non-gazetted, state universities, commissions, autonomous bodies and PSUs to subscribe to the policy.

President of Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC) Abdul QayoomWani said there is still no word from the government about the entire issue.

“We have not heard anything from the government yet. We have no idea what is going to happen to our money that was deducted from our salary accounts,” Wani said.

Wani said as per the insurance policy, the employees were supposed to pay four instalments after every three months.

“We tried to reach out to the concerned officials but all in vain. Now our demand is that whenever new policy will be framed, unlike in the past employees must be taken on board,” Wani said.

Principal Secretary to Government, Finance Department Navin Kumar Choudhary refused to comment on the issue.

“I am not here to give interviews to media. Whatever is the status of the issue will be uploaded on our official website,” Choudhary said.

Updated On 11/19/2018 11:11:21 AM