Take cues from Chennai floods to become a more insured society, says Jaitely

Says assistance can only be a temporary and transient measure

A tragedy such as the one faced by the four districts of Tamil Nadu, including Chennai, in the form of torrential rain and floods should be taken as a challenge to strengthen India as a greater insured society, as India is a lesser insured society today, said Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Speaking at a function organised by the State Level Bankers'Committee (SLBC), Tamil Nadu, for distribution of loans and insurance compensation for those who were affected by the recent floods in the four districts, he said that assistance can only be a temporary and transient measure. In the long term people have to be strengthened and stand up on their own and it is here that the financial institutions have a very important and powerful role. It may be noted that the recent severe rains and flood has affected the life of people in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Cuddalore districts.

 

"Our eventual objective is that India must become an insured society. Even today we are one of the lesser insured society. Therefore such tragedy should be a challenge to us that in future we must strengthen India as a greater insured society," he added.

Banks and insurance companies would be actively working with various organisations and others and it would be much over and above the assistance the central and the state governments giving to people, to make sure that life returns to normal. The initiatives would help over the next few weeks in bringing relief and rehabilitation to a large section of people.

The finance minister said that he had a meeting with the representatives of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and the general insurance companies and one of the objective of the meeting is that all claims must be disposed off expeditiously within days. All those who had the benefit of insurance policies must immediately get what they are entitled to.

Insurance companies assured the Minister that they have set up around 176 centres in the four districts and all claims are being settled expeditiously. If there is a dispute on claim settlement they will have an ombudsman mechanism to avoid legal remedies and get the remedy easily.

While one cannot prevent the disaster, the governments will have to take steps in order to ensure that such a thing doesn't take place, or that the damage is minimised and that the system is strengthened in order to put back the society with all strength in its own feet, he added.

State Finance Minister O Panneerselvam has said that state government, which in November 23 has informed the centre that the immediate losses owing to the rains and flood would be around Rs 8,400 crore and requested an assistance of Rs 2,000 crore, is in the process of assessing the losses during the severe floods occured in the districts after that.

He requested the centre to exempt the victims from repaying loans for a short period and provide a loan of Rs 5 lakh to them to purchase household materials. He said that the State government is taking various measures to bring the life of those affected, back to normalcy.

The SLBC, in a recent meeting, has decided to ask for measures including moratorium of loans and restructuring, for those who have been affected by the floods, said R Koteeswaran, managing director and CEO of Indian Overseas Bank. IOB is the lead bank of SLBC Tamil Nadu. The proposals from SLBC has to get necessary approvals for implementation, he added.