In October 2018, he noticed a sum of about Rs 1,900 had been deducted from his modest salary. He was told it was the first instalment of th...
In October 2018, he noticed a sum of about Rs 1,900 had been deducted from his modest salary. He was told it was the first instalment of the premium for medical insurance that had been made mandatory for government employees in Kashmir.
“They never sought our consent,” said the government employee, who works in Kashmir’s education department, and only wanted to be identified as Ahmed. “Whether we wanted the medical insurance policy or not, nobody asked us.”
A few months later, the financial staff in the education department told him the insurance policy had been scrapped. “They just said that there was some scam in it and that the money was gone. There was no explanation,” he said.
The group medical insurance scheme, meant for nearly 4.5 lakh government employees and over 1 lakh government pensioners in Jammu and Kashmir, had been rolled out in September 2018.
The government had tied up with Anil Ambani’s Reliance General Insurance. The Rs 260 crore insurance scheme came into effect on October 1, 2018. That month, Rs 60 crore was paid as advance on the premium. But before the end of October, the government suddenly cancelled the scheme.
“Employees wanted it to be cancelled,” then Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satyapal Malik had said at the time....
