*Finance Deptt awaits instructions to revive welfare measure
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 23: Lakhs of State Government employees are without Group Mediclaim Insurance as Government has failed to revive the welfare measure and honour the decision taken by the State Administrative Council (SAC) headed by Governor N N Vohra over a year back. Moreover, there are grim chances of any positive development on this front in near future as political bosses have explicitly told the Finance Department not to initiate any step in this direction till further orders.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that as a welfare measure, the Government during the past many years was providing Mediclaim Insurance Cover to gazetted employees by engaging insurance company through proper tendering process. However, during Governor’s rule the State Administrative Council in its meeting held on March 27, 2016 took a significant decision and approved extension of insurance facility to approximately 3.5 lakh non-gazetted employees of the State Government.
The SAC had noted that under the scheme an employee along with five members of his or her family would be covered for an amount of Rs 5 lakh cashless treatment across well known hospitals within and outside the State. In this way, the decision of SAC was aimed at bringing 20 lakh persons comprising employees and their family members under Mediclaim Group Insurance Scheme, which is a very significant percentage of the entire population of Jammu and Kashmir.
This decision was taken keeping in view the difficulties being faced by the employees particularly those at the lower ranks in meeting large medical bills for critical care and the reimbursement system which at times takes years to settle claims.
Moreover, for the convenience of the employees the SAC decided that Stamp Duty and Service Tax of Rs 30 crore which would have accrued to the State Exchequer annually will be waived off with a view to reduce the burden of the premium payable by the employees. Even the liberty was given to the non-gazetted employees for making payment of premium in 12 monthly installments.
Following establishment of political Government it was decided that non-gazetted employees would be brought under Group Mediclaim Insurance Scheme at the time of completion of ongoing arrangement in respect of gazetted employees.
Prior to completion of three years arrangement with ICICI Lombard GIC Ltd in respect of gazetted employees, the Finance Department vide communication number FD-VII-8(210) DONGE/2016 dated February 6, 2017 invited tenders for implementation of Group Mediclaim Insurance Policy for all the gazetted and non-gazetted employees, sources said.
This step generated hope among the non-gazetted employees about implementation of decision taken by the Governor. However, all of a sudden the Finance Department vide communication dated March 1, 2017 cancelled the Notice Inviting Tender (NIT) dated February 6, 2017 without mentioning any reasons behind this unexpected step, they further said.
“In this way, the decision of State Administrative Council has remained unimplemented despite lapse of more than one year”, sources said, adding “due to cancellation of NIT even the gazetted employees whose Group Insurance was alive till March 2017 are no more covered under medical cover while as small section of gazetted employees will get deprived of this facility in August this year as they were covered under second tranche of insurance”.
They further said, “it is a matter of concern that instead of implementing the decision of Governor for which one month time-frame was given the Government has even failed to revive insurance of gazetted employees”, adding “it is not understandable as to how the Government can be so callous towards the employees especially when it has admitted in the Notice Inviting Tender dated February 2, 2017 that Mediclaim Insurance Cover is one of the major employee friendly measure and helps in providing best healthcare facilities”.
When contacted, a senior officer of the Finance Department said, “as of now there is no decision on renewal of insurance….we have been told to wait till further orders from the top”, adding “it is a fact that non-gazetted employees could not be extended this insurance cover till date and the same in respect of majority of the gazetted employees expired in the month of March this year”.
When specifically asked about the time-frame for revival of insurance, the officer said, “such decisions are taken at the highest level and we are here only to implement the same”.
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