Govt fails to pay premium for health insurance plan for cops

Inquiries made by The Indian Express revealed that after holding deliberations with the New India Assurance Company,the home and justice department selected a cashless treatment scheme for the entire workforce of the police. Following this,the welfare department had sent a communiqué to districts officials asking to get the share of the personnel in the scheme submitted in a dedicated account before 10th of every month beginning December 2011.

The Rs 2-lakh scheme offered cashless treatment facility for police personnel, spouse and two dependent children. A gazetted officer and his equivalent clerical staff was asked to pay Rs 100,non-gazetted officer and his equivalent staff Rs 90 and other ranks and clerical staff Rs 80. The state police comprises 70,000 personnel.

Sources said the tenure of the policy,as conveyed to officials,was from December 2011 to December 2012. Beginning December,2011,the cops started paying their share in the Punjab Police Welfare Health Insurance Fund.

As per the arrangement,

the medical bills of the ben

eficiaries were to be sent

to the insurance company for clearance,as against the prevailing practice

of their reimbursement from the budget allotted for the purpose. But it

has now emerged that the state government never signed an MoU with the

insurance company nor paid any premium.

A recent communiqué by the welfare branch of Punjab Police to the heads of police in districts clearly cited “non-allotment” of funds as the reason due to which the scheme could not mature. “For the time being,the Group Health Insurance Scheme could not be made operational in the absence of allotment of the required funds. Group Health Insurance Scheme is to be operational only after making payment of the required fund to the company concerned,” stated the communiqué,underlining that from December 1,2011,medical bills were to be cleared as per previous norms only.

According to sources,following this communiqué,district level officials started writing to the concerned higher officials in the office of welfare branch to demand the return of the employees’ share. “Yes,the scheme could not become operational. In fact,we plan some better scheme for the cops,” said ADGP (Welfare) Rajinder Singh,when contacted. He,however,could not give details about the “better” scheme. “We will shortly finalise the scheme and then give details,” he claimed.

“The share of the cops deposited by them for the scheme is intact. I have passed an order to return their share,” the ADGP further said. When told that a recent letter by his department had cited non-allotment of funds as the reason for the scheme not becoming operational,Singh claimed: “This is not the reason. As I told you,we are getting the scheme reworked.”

Asked about the total amount of premium the police department had to pay to the New India Assurance Company Limited for earlier scheme,Singh said: “I do not remember off hand and will have to check the file for that.”

When contacted,a New India Assurance Company official claimed: “Though the exact amount could have been worked out after the formal signing of an MoU,the tentative estimates are that the government was supposed to pay at least Rs 28 crore as premium. The calculations are based on a number of parameters.” A welfare department official,however,claimed that the scheme could not become a reality for want of Rs 13 crore that was to be paid as premium.