Centre urged not to amend IRDA Act

Khairatabad: The Indian Institute of Insurance Surveyors and Loss Assessors Association (ISLA) has strongly opposed the new proposed Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) Act, which is set to be tabled in Parliament by the union government.

Addressing a press conference, association national president DCS Raju explained the pros and cons of the proposed Act. Through the proposed act, an insurance company can decide compensation given to policy holder, based on its own assessment if the vehicle insurance is below Rs 75,000 and property loss is below Rs 1.5 lakh, he said.

While the new act is against the interests of policy holders, they are likely to benefit insurance companies, Raju said. The proposed act would help private companies resort to irregular activities, he said.

He demanded that the union government withdraw the proposed act and let the loss assessing surveyors retain the authority to decide the compensation to policy holders as per the existing law to benefit policy holders. He said that the association had submitted a memorandum to Union Finance Minister demanding withdrawal of the proposed act.

While there are about 10,000 surveyors in the country, there are about 600 surveyors in AP and Telangana, 215 are in Hyderabad alone. Raju said that unemployed youth who wish to join the sector would be disappointed by the proposed act. The association staged protests recently at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, apart from different states.

ISLA national vice-president Rahul Jadhav, council members Rajanish Ganwanth Roy Desai, state council members Surender, Babu Rao, P Soujanya Kumar, Hyderabad chapter chairman Kondal Reddy participated in the press conference.