Insurance Ombudsman seeks more complaints from public

Panaji, Nov 26 (UNI) Insurance Ombudsman in-charge of Maharashtra and Goa today sought more complaints from the public to redress their grievances related to settlement of claims related to all sorts of insurance products including life and mediclaim.

Interacting with mediapersons, Ombudsman R K Vashishtha said that the number of claims he received last year was 1,700 and it was on rise since inception of the office in 1999. The number of such complaints however, constitute not even one per cent of the policies registered each year.

He said that there was a need to bring about awareness of the existence of the Ombudsman office for the insurance sector among the public for ''cost effective, efficient and impartial'' redressal of their individual grievances related to claims of all sorts.

India has 12 such Ombudsman offices set up under the ''Redressal of Public Grievance Rules, 1998'' to resolve the disputes between the insured person or their legal heirs and the insurance companies.

Most of the complaints are related to delay in payment of claims, their rejection or partial payment. The Ombudsman, as a quasi-judicial authority, settles the disputes as early as possible.

''We have given 366 awards for the year so far,'' Mr Vashishtha said.

LIC Goa Division Senior Divisional Manager Priti Panwar and Marketing Manager N S Shirahatti, who were also present on the occasion, said that the aggrieved public approached the Ombudsman only after exhausting the available internal grievances mechanism with the insurance offices. That is why the number of complaints reaching the Ombudsman office are so low, they added.

UNI