While providing benefits of mediclaim insurance has become integral to service conditions in case of Government employees in other States of the country, the same has not been renewed in favour of lakhs of employees in our State. Over a year ago, the State Administrative Council had taken a decision during the rule of the Governor that mediclaim insurance should be revived not only in the case of gazette officers but also in the case of non-gazetted officers as well. Regrettably this decision has not been honoured by the administration and the interests of lakhs of Government employees stand jeopardized. Besides, the administration has no intention of reviving the insurance scheme and not only that it has instructed the concerned quarters not to initiate the case till further orders. This is unacceptable.
Under the scheme that was in vogue till last year, five family members of a Government employee were included in the insurance scheme and in this way at least 20 lakh people of the State would be brought under insurance umbrella. There is absolutely no idea with anybody whether or not the scheme will be revived. 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 20 lakh SAC was aimed at bringing 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. The SAC had gone further ahead and recommended that for the convenience of the employees the Stamp Duty and Service Tax of Rs 30 crore which would have accrued to the State Exchequer annually was to be waived off with a view to reduce the burden of the premium payable by the employees. Even the liberty was given of paying the premium in 12 monthly installments.
None of these facilities is there at present and the revival of insurance scheme is in limbo. This is of great disadvantage to the Government employees and to the people of the State in general. We hope that the Government will realize that it is doing great injustice to the employees by deferring the revival of mediclaim insurance and should not wait a day more to order the revival.
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