Though Governor Satya Pal Malik Saturday ordered foreclosure of the employee health insurance contract to Reliance General Insurance Company (RGIC), National Conference upped the ante and sought an “impartial and thorough” probe into the “shady deal”.
Party vice-president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah wrote on Twitter that he would write to Governor Malik and seek an impartial inquiry into the deal “full of frauds”.
“I will be taking this up with Hon @jandkgovernor through a letter asking for an impartial inquiry to establish the identity of the people responsible for the deal full of fraud. Cancellation of the contract can only be the first step here not the end result,” Omar wrote.
On Friday, Greater Kashmir reported that the Governor has asked the newly-constituted Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to inquire into “dubious” allotment of the contract.
National Conference general secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar said the Governor has assured that he will bring the “truth to the fore”.
“We hope he will live up to his remarks,” said Sagar.
The policy was initially notified for implementation in February this year when the then PDP-BJP government was ruling the state. Approved at a premium of Rs 8,776 per employee and 22,228 per pensioner, the contract was allotted for a period of one year. While J&K has around 4.5 lakh employees, the number of pensioners varies from 1 to 1.25 lakh persons.
Though the contract had been finalised, it was finally allotted to the RGIC on October 1, despite strong opposition from state employees led by secretariat employees’ union, and criticism from political parties led by Congress.
The allotment of the contract was the first decision cleared by Governor while chairing the first meeting of the State Accountability Council on August 31. But after receiving representation from the employees union, the Governor announced to scrap it earlier this week.
“It should also be probed if there was any involvement at political level,” said Sagar.
National Conference provincial president Nasir AslamWani also expressed apprehensions about the fraud. He said Omar will write to Governor Malik on Monday.
“All the questions being raised should be brought within the ambit of the probe. We are told the insurance company had already got premium of one quarter. How will government get hard earned money of employees back if the deal has been scrapped? Why was it done in haste and who initiated it. These all issues need to be investigated thoroughly,” he said.