Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who made a whirlwind tour to Chennai on Sunday to take stock of the situation arising out of the recent flood which devastated the capital city and neighbouring districts, gave enough hints of bringing more people under insurance coverage. “We are today one of the lesser insured society. The recent tragedy is a lesson for future that India has to be an insured society,” said the Union Finance Minister on Sunday while addressing bankers and financial executives of the State at Chennai.
After disbursing loans and financial assistance to those affected by floods, Jaitley asked the insurance companies to ‘expeditiously dispose off all the claims;. “The insurance companies have set up 176 centres in flood-affected districts and all claims have to be settled expeditiously,” the Minister told the officials. Jaitley wanted the bankers to be on a mission mode to extend soft-loans to those affected by the flood.
Earlier, the Minister met representatives of Reserve Bank of India, Chennai, senior officials of public sector banks and insurance companies to chalk out an action plan to help those affected by the floods. The report is that he told the bankers and insurance companies to offer maximum help in minimum time to all those who seek financial assistance and concessions in repayment of loans.
A release issued after the minister’s meeting with bankers said Jaitley disbursed Rs42.07 crore as assistance to 1,223 people affected in the flood. A total of 129 persons received financial aid of Rs3.25 crore for renovating houses while 420 women received benefits worth Rs5 crore. Insurance compensation of Rs5.93 crore was given to 154 beneficiaries, while 659 people were presented financial aid of Rs9.02 crore under Prime Minister’s ‘Mudra Yojana’ scheme. 85 severely damaged MSME units received Rs26.95 crore worth of loans while 350 persons whose homes were either washed away or completely submerged by the floods received financial assistance of Rs2.84 crore.