VIJAYAWADA: In a major decision, AP Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday made changes to the YSR Bima scheme by which the State government will pay the insurance amount to the family members of the deceased enrolled under the scheme directly. The altered scheme would come into force from July 1. Unorganised sector workers in the age group of 18 to 70 years are covered under the scheme. An insurance of Rs 1 lakh would be paid if the person, who is the breadwinner of the family in the age group of 18 to 50 years, dies naturally. An insurance of Rs 5 lakh would be provided if a person in the age group of 18 to 70 years meets with an accidental death
‘Simplify claim settlement’
Jagan, who held a review on YSR Bima, instructed the officials to revamp the existing guidelines of the scheme and make the claim settlement process simpler and easier. “Implement the scheme with changes from July 1 and take steps to resolve the claims related to the deaths of breadwinner of a family at the earliest. The insurance compensation should be paid within a month of receiving an application,’’ he said and asked officials to appoint a special officer to monitor the scheme.
Strict monitoring
Jagan also asked the officials to compensate for the death of farmers, accidental death of fishermen, death of livestock, on time without any delay and support those families. He instructed the Collectors to report on all types of insurance claims every three months, strictly monitoring how many claims have been received and resolved. “The responsibility for screening of applications must be given to village, ward secretariats,’’ the Chief Minister said.
The Chief Minister decided to make changes to the scheme after the officials explained the nitty-gritty involved in the process of claims. Officials informed the Chief Minister that the government has not backed out in providing financial assistance to those families who lost their sole breadwinner. The government is implementing the YSR Bima scheme for about 1.4 crore ration card holders across the State even after the Centre, which earlier paid 50 per cent of share in premium amount, withdrew from the scheme. After that the Centre withdrew, the entire premium was paid by the State on humanitarian grounds to provide security to those in need,’’ officials said.
Delay in opening of bank accounts
Officials said there was a serious delay in opening bank accounts, linking to insurance and sett l ement of claims and compensating the affected families. “Even if the premium is paid in full by the State government, the accounts are not being opened or linked to insurance, resulting in large number of applications pending at bank branches to enroll for eligibility under insurance,’’ they said. Even after completing the paperwork, 45 days is taken as a lean period and the authorities do not give any compensation if the person earning in the family dies during that period.
“Almost 12,039 people have died within the 45-day period of taking insurance and no compensation was paid to those families by the banks, but with the intervention of Chief Minister Rs 254.72 crore has been paid to them on humani tar ian grounds,’’ they said. The officials informed that so far only 60 lakh accounts have been opened and remaining 58 lakh applications are pending in State. Similarly, with regard to claims, 6,173 applications have been received till date, where only 2,839 documents have been uploaded and 152 families have received the claim settlement. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister congratulated the officials of the Finance Department for their hard work behind providing the welfare schemes to the public even during Covid times.