Coimbatore: Within a month after an NGO offered a Group Insurance Policy to the Anti-Poaching Watchers (APWs) and members of the Rapid Response Team (RRT) of the Coimbatore Forest Division, the District Forest Department has taken the initiative to insure them in a comprehensive insurance scheme with the State Bank of India (SBI).
Coimbatore: Within a month after an NGO offered a Group Insurance Policy to the Anti-Poaching Watchers (APWs) and members of the Rapid Response Team (RRT) of the Coimbatore Forest Division, the District Forest Department has taken the initiative to insure them in a comprehensive insurance scheme with the State Bank of India (SBI).
According to the District Forest Officer, D Venkatesh, 136 APWs and 10 RRT members working with the division will benefit through this scheme. “We are to first ensure that all of them open a salary account with the bank. Most of them have salary accounts with the SBI and once all of them have their accounts in SBI, they will be automatically linked to the insurance scheme,” he said.
"The bank will automatically deduct a sum of Rs.500 from their accounts every year as a premium. The scheme will cover medical claims and fatalities, if any. As much as Rs.10 lakh will be paid to them in the event of fatalities,” said the DFO. He further added that the medical claims will be based on cost of treatment.
It may be noted that the family of Venkatesh, an RRT member who was killed by an elephant in October 2018 was offered a solatium of Rs. 8 lakhs. This incident created a stir amongst fellow workers since their demand was for the authorities to pay the family a sum of Rs.10 lakhs as solatium.
The scheme has been initiated by the department to offer a comprehensive insurance package, considering the risk involved in their jobs.