State insurance to cover road accident victims

KOLKATA: Tuesday''s accident on Bijan setu has made the state government sit up and take note. Thus, they are thinking along the lines of introducing a state insurance system, which will cover all road accident victims.
The project will be linked with the high security registration plates project that the state government is currently struggling to implement, the date having being extended to January 2005.
The tender provisions for the high security registration plate state that the manufacturer will have to contribute 3 per cent of their annual turnover to the transport department. And it is this 3 per cent that will be used by the government to pay as insurance premium to the general insurance firm entrusted with the state insurance for road victims, pointed out sources from the West Bengal Transport Development Corporation.
According to their calculations, for 15 lakh cars on the road, if security plates are priced at Rs 800 per piece, the annual turnover will be around 60-70 crore and 3 per cent of that comes to around Rs 1.5 crore, which will be the government’s contribution towards the state insurance scheme.
The insurance will cover privately-owned as well as state-owned vehicles. “We feel accidents are transport matters and hence the responsibility of the transport department. We are taking the responsibility of road accidents, irrespective of whether they are caused by government or private vehicles, through this state insurance scheme.� said transport department officials.
A former transport official pointed out that till he was in office no state owned vehicle was covered by insurance. The statement was corroborated by official sources who said if not all at least 3/4th of the state vehicles have no insurance cover. And this considering, at least 150 uninsured state owned vehicles are out on the road every day. However, PVD director, R.Mohan says “it is mandatory for all state owned vehicles to be insured. However, we do provide exemptions for some.�
Moreover, bus licenses, which include a compulsory insurance cover, does not extend to the victim’s life. Although the third party insurance covers the victim too, the process for claiming compensation is quite complicated as the claims have to be put up to a motor accident claims tribunal, which is a long drawn process, he pointed out.
“Once we implement this scheme, the victim or his family can claim and get the insurance amount in as many as seven days. It will cut short the entire process by almost 100 per cent. This is a system which is operating no where else in the country.� WBTC officials pointed out.