The insurance sector regulator is introducing this card to ensure all vehicle owners renew their third-party insurance policy, which provides coverage of up to Rs 500,000 in case the vehicle is responsible for death, disability or injury of people during road accidents.[break]
“In this regard, we had earlier asked all non-life insurance companies (that sell third-party insurance policies) to submit sample and format of cards that could be brought into use,” Dr Fatta Bahadur KC, chairman of the IB, told Republica. “Now, we have asked them to take a collective decision themselves and approach us after that.”
Once the sample is endorsed, the Board is planning to hold talks with traffic police, who will be asked to check this document whenever cars are pulled over for regular inspection of driving license and vehicle registration certificates (commonly known as bill books).
“We hope this measure will be most effective in terms of properly enforcing third-party insurance scheme,” KC said.
The IB had made it mandatory for all vehicle owners to purchase third-party insurance policy in Sept, 2009. Because of this provision, kin of each person killed in the road accident can claim up to Rs 500,000 in compensation, while those injured can legally demand up to Rs 200,000 to cover medical expenses.
But two years after this law was introduced, the IB had found many vehicle owners, who were obliged to purchase the policies, had stopped renewing them the following year.
According to IB, the owners of two-wheelers are the ones who are seriously flouting the third-party insurance law, as only about 200,000 of more than 700,000 registered two-wheelers have insurance coverage. “It is the same with private vehicles, as most owners think they are not that reckless when it comes to driving,” an official of the IB said.
IB officials acknowledge that they have not been able to implement the scheme properly due to lack of coordination with transport offices, where new vehicles are registered.
Earlier, the IB had asked all transport offices to issue or renew bill books only if the owners present third-party insurance policies along with applications.
So far, transport offices have been asking vehicle owners to submit this document while registering new vehicles. However, these documents are not checked when owners come to renew registration of their vehicles. As a result, renewing third-party insurance policies also do not fall in the priority list of most of the vehicle owners.
An official of the Department of Transport on condition of anonymity told Republica that most of the transport offices fail to check insurance policies while renewing vehicle registration certificates as most of the offices are in short supply of human resources and may not always have time to look for these documents.
“We hope introduction of the card and mobilization of traffic police to check these documents will help us overcome all these problems,” IB chairman KC said.
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