Third party insurance premiums of motor vehicles are set to go up significantly, as per a suggestion from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA). However, there are doubts on how such a step is going to help accident victims, especially if the money is not made available when it is needed most for emergency treatment.
Balasubramaniam, a victim of a road accident, says that money is badly needed to treat the victim immediately. He says that there are innumerable cases where the victim has lost his life or gone into a vegetative state as close ones could not raise enough money for treatment. The compensation and insurance claim amounts reach the victim only after several years, and that too only if the case is cleared in the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT). “I had met with an accident in 2009. I lost my only son. My wife and myself were badly injured. Our lawyer filed the complaint in two months after the accident. But the case is yet to come up for hearing. So how are we going to benefit from the increased third party premium?”, he asks. “I am 70 years old. I really do not know when I am going to get the money”, Balasubramaniam adds.
Other victims, on condition of anonymity said that there exists an unholy nexus between insurance companies and the MACT which is why a huge number of cases are piling up in the state. “There is nothing to be appreciated in the way the authorities are conducting any case in this regard. Hence we suspect an unholy tie-up between them”, they said.
Jacob Mathew, Consultant, General Insurance refuted this allegation, saying that the victims could collect their compensation easily once they start interacting with the insurance companies directly. “Instead the lawyers are taking them to court which is causing an undue delay in getting their claim”, he said.