*Guv approved Employees Welfare Fund yet to be set up
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 5: The extension of Cashless Medical Insurance Scheme to lakhs of non-gazetted employees, a significant welfare decision taken by the State Administrative Council (SAC) headed by the Governor, has failed to become reality despite lapse of several months due to the inability of the State Government to negotiate with the representative bodies of the employees on certain key issues. Moreover, there is no progress on setting-up of Employees Welfare Fund because of slackness on the part of General Administration and Finance Departments.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that the State Administrative Council in its meeting held under the chairmanship of Governor N N Vohra on March 28, 2016 had approved the extension of Cashless Medical Insurance Scheme to approximately 3.5 lakh non-gazetted employees of the State Government on the analogy of such scheme already in place for the gazetted employees.
It was stated that under the proposed 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 scheme would cover about 20 lakh persons.
The SAC even noted that the 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. Further, for the non-gazetted employees, the annual premium of Rs 5403 would be allowed to be paid in 12 monthly installments, which comes to Rs 450 per month. However, the medical reimbursement as admissible to employees at the rate of Rs 300 per month will continue to be paid.
After the formulation of PDP-BJP Coalition Government in the month of March this year and allotment of portfolios of the departments, the officers of the Finance Department held meetings with various employees unions in order to discuss the broad contours of the Cashless Medical Insurance Scheme.
In the meeting, which was also attended by the representatives of ICICI Lombard-a company providing Insurance Scheme to the gazetted employees, the leaders of non-gazetted employees unions demanded that some more tests and facilities should be included in the scheme on the ground that similar schemes being offered by other companies to the employees at individual level are more attractive from healthcare point of view, sources said.
They even stressed that decision taken by Government headed by Ghulam Nabi Azad whereby it was offered that 50% premium will be borne by the Government and 50% by the employees should also be implemented. “The employees were of the opinion that getting medical reimbursement of Rs 300 per month and paying Rs 450 per month for the Medical Insurance Scheme premium would put additional burden on their pockets”, sources said.
In the meeting, the representatives of the Finance Department assured to bring their demands to the notice of the Finance Minister and accordingly a decision would be taken shortly so as to pave the way for implementation of the significant decision taken by the State Administrative Council, sources said.
However, the Government has failed to negotiate with the employees over the issues projected by the latter despite lapse of several months thereby creating roadblock in rolling out the scheme for non-gazetted categories of the employees, sources regretted. This is notwithstanding the fact that SAC had fixed time-frame of one month for roll out of the scheme.
Stating that such a scheme would help in redressing the difficulties being faced by the lower rank employees in meeting large medical bills for critical care, Suresh Bedi, Vice-President of Civil Secretariat Non-Gazetted Employees Union, when contacted, said, “our demands are totally justified and there should not be any hitch for the Government in meeting the same”, adding “after the meeting with the representatives of the Finance Department we have not heard anything from the Government side till date”.
According to the sources, in view of impasse between the Government and the employees over the premium amount and incorporation of more facilities in the proposed scheme, there are bleak chances of scheme being extended to other sections like the employees working in Public Sector Undertakings, Universities, Semi-Government Organizations, which was also suggested by the State Administrative Council.
“Similar is the fate of SAC decision about creation of J&K Employees Welfare Fund”, sources said while disclosing that Governor had directed for establishment of Fund with initial corpus to be contributed by the Government from which the employees of the State could be extended support for various welfare purposes.
“Neither Employees Welfare Fund has been created till date nor guidelines/rules have been framed for administration of this Fund by the General Administration Department in consultation with the Finance Department”, sources regretted.
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