Date:20/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/20/stories/2006092022840400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Cheques given to kin of 22 dead staff of transport corporations

Staff Reporter

HANDY: Transport Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy presenting life insurance cheques to family members of dead employees of State transport corporations in Bangalore on Tuesday. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: Transport Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy on Tuesday gave away cheques to the kin of 22 dead employees of three State Transport Undertakings (STUs) towards insurance amount.

Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance covers the life risk of the employees.

The Minister appreciated the understanding entered into between the STUs — Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and the North East Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NEKRTC) — for the benefit of staff members. He said by paying a mere Rs. 50 per month, every employee right from mechanic to officer, could get life coverage for Rs. 3 lakh.

While BMTC signed a memorandum of understanding with Bajaj Allianz in January this year covering all 21,000 employees, KSRTC joined the scheme in June by covering 12,400 of its 24,000 employees and the NEKRTC in August covering all 11,000 employees. The remaining 12,600 employees of KSRTC and all 11,000 employees of North West Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) would be covered by next month.

Under the scheme, if the employee is married and his parents are alive, the insurance amount would be distributed in 25:75 ratio between the parents and the wife. If he is unmarried and parents are alive or if his parents are no more and is married, the entire amount would be paid to the parents and the wife respectively. Only death in-service is covered under the scheme. There were 22 claims from BMTC since January and all of them have been settled by Bajaj Allianz by paying Rs. 66 lakh; 12 claims from KSRTC and seven settled by paying Rs. 21 lakh, and two claims from NEKRTC and both have been settled by paying Rs. 6 lakh. Managing Director of KSRTC and BMTC Upendra Tripathy said the corporations were working on a scheme to help employees who would be on loss of pay due to terminal illness. A programme would be in place within a month to help such employees, he added.

Manjit Sidhu, National Head, Group Channel, Prasanna Jagtpa, Area Manager from Bajaj Allianz, M.W. Ahmed, Director (Personnel) of KSRTC, Bhaskar Rao and P.S. Sandhu, Directors (Security and Vigilance) of KSRTC and BMTC, respectively, S.K. Paramesh, Managing Director, NWKRTC, and S.A. Rub, Managing Director, NEKRTC, were present.

Flagged off

Mr. Cheluvarayaswamy flagged off specially designed eight three-door buses of BMTC. Launching the buses, the Minister hailed the corporation's move to ensure a pleasant journey for women commuters.

The buses offer one entry at the middle and two exits — at the front and the rear — for women and men. The speciality of the buses is that unless all the doors are closed, they do not move.