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Strike, if insurance bill enters Lok Sabha

The employees of insurance companies, including LIC and GIC, will go on an indefinite strike from the day the controversial Insurance Regulatory Authority bill comes up for discussion in the Lok Sabha.

General secretary of the National Federation of Insurance Field Workers of India, Anand Tyagi, said in Ahmedabad today that the IRA bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha by the Bharatiya Janata Party government on December 15 by flouting all parliamentary norms. It was finally referred to the standing committee on finance headed by a member of Parliament Murli Deora (Congress, Bombay), for examination and tabling reports in Parliament.

The controversial bill sought to allow upto 26 per cent equity in an insurance company with 14 per cent equity to Non Resident Indians and foreign institutional investors and Overseas Corporate Bodies.

The main aim and the object of the bill was to dilute the monopolistic character of LIC and propose amendment of the 1956 Life Insurance Act and 1972 General Insurance Corporation Act, Tyagi said.

He said the all insurance trade unions were opposing the bill to preserve the sanctity of good health of this prestigious financial institution (LIC) and would not allow any political party or political leader to sell this sector to foreigners.

He further alleged that the proposed entry permits have been given to those foreign insurance companies which do not have a good track record, but, in fact, are defaulters in their countries. Today the nation is in an utterly confused state on political and economic fronts. LIC is the only public sector financial institution which was registering growth, he added.

From Rs 5 billion institution at the time of its inception in 1956-57, LIC has grown to Rs 10.58 trillion business.

Tyagi further elaborated on the efficiency of LIC and said, it has 97 per cent claim clearance ratio which was the highest for any insurance company in the world as per the study conducted by a London-based institution.

While admitting that the administrative infrastructure of LIC needed improvement and be streamlined, he said it was due to the autonomous structure of management.

At present, nearly 2,000 branches of LIC had already been computerised and major metros like Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras have been linked to each other so that any policy-holder can deposit his or her premium or claim from any of these offices. LIC hopes to computerise all the offices and network them by 2000.

UNI

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