Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 23: The Government seems to have put the much-talked about proposal of providing insurance cover to Sarpanchs and Panchs in the cold storage as no significant progress has been made even six months after the announcement in this regard and uncertainty still prevails whether the proposal would see light of the day in future or not.
The announcement regarding providing insurance cover to the Sarpanchs and Panchs was first made by Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Ali Mohammad Sagar in the month of December last year following killing of some members of the Panchayats in Kashmir valley at the hands of the terrorists.
Initially, the Government took keen interest to give practical shape to the announcement and even floated Expression of Interest on January 14 this year in response to which four companies came forward to provide life insurance to 4128 Sarpanchs and 29707 Panchs but thereafter the issue slowly and slowly went out of the priority list of the Government”, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
“On the basis of Expression of Interest, the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj even prepared a brief note and presented the same to the Finance Department with the hope that the entire exercise regarding providing life insurance cover to the Sarpanchs and Panchs would be completed before the finalization of Budget for the 2013-14 financial year and provision of funds required in this regard would be kept in the Budget”, sources informed.
However, the Finance Department responded to the note of the Department of Panchayati Raj by stating that certain clarifications were required and separate discussions needed to be held on the issue before working out a policy guidelines, sources said, adding “thereafter no significant process has been made about giving practical shape to the announcement made by the Rural Development Department and reiterated at different official fora”.
“Since such life insurance cover was contemplated for the first time in the country, there was a need to have continuous and exclusive exercise on the issue in order to prepare the roadmap but it is unfortunate that the issue has not been taken with required vigor”, sources said, adding “keeping in view the trivial progress made during the past nearly six months it seems that the proposal may not see the light of the day”.
When contacted, a senior officer of the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that no headway has been made on the proposal till date, adding “no time-frame has been fixed for completion of exercise required to be carried out to give practical shape to the announcement”.
In response to another question, he said, “the communication, which the State Government had sent to the Union Minister for Rural Development, Jairam Ramesh seeking financial assistance to meet the expenses on account of life insurance cover to the Sarpanchs and Panchs and other activities, has not been responded to by the Union Government till date”.
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