Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday urged the Centre to open a lIC’s Zonal Office (Tire-II) here in order to meet people’s requirement in the State. Patnaik wrote to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in this regard. “I request you to consider establishment of an lIC Zonal Office at Bhubaneswar at the earliest so that long cherished aspirations of State’s lIC customers would be met,” Patnaik stated in the letter.
Stating that the hid Government is making all out efforts to ensure 100 financial inclusion in a time bound manner, Patnaik said one of the most important pillars of meaningful financial inclusion is the easy availability of insurance products to the vulnerable sections of the society, specially people in the rural unorganised sector. Patnaik said while the lIC has tremendous potential to spread insurance and micro-insurance products at grassroots level in Odisha, yet it does not yet have a zonal office in the State.
The State is currently being served by it’s the Eastern Central Zonal Office headquartered in Patna, he informed. Stating that policyholders in the State are facing difficulties to communicated with the Patna Zonal Office due to lack of direct flights and conveninent daily train services for grievances redressal, Patnaik said, “I feel lIC should set up a separate zonal office at Bhubaneswar to cater to the needs of its expanding customer base in the State. To start with, a tire-II ZO can be opened immediately which can be upgraded to a regular ZO later.”
He informed Jaitley that the State Government has already allotted five acres of land to the lIC HFl Care Homes at nominal rates and one acre for establishment of a new office. He further urged the Finance Minister to ensure that Odisha gets a nomination in the lIC Board so that the collective aspiration of the people would find a voice in the highest decision making body.