Guwahati News Desk: The Insurance Ombudsman Office at Guwahati has disposed 550 complaints in last fiscal year. The Insurance Ombudsman Office at Guwahati caters to the needs of all seven states in North Eastern India, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura.
The institution stated, “In 2019-2020 it disposed 596 complaints while it received 617 cases, in 2018-2019 it disposed 572 cases and received 572 cases. In 2020-2021 the institution received and disposed 550 complaints. During the current year as well, the Guwahati Centre has achieved the unique distinction of settling all pending complaints within 90 days.”
The Institution of Insurance Ombudsman(BimaLokpal) has been brought to existence through Insurance Ombudsman Rules, 2017 promulgated by Ministry of Finance, Government of India and subsequently Amended in 2021.
The body stated, “Despite the existence of elaborate and effective in-house grievance redressal machinery with all Insurance Companies, a need for creating another Quasi-Judicial Forum was being felt over a long period of time. The objective of the institution of Ombudsman is to provide resolution to the problems faced by the insuring public in a cost effective, efficient and impartial manner. Accordingly, seventeen centers have been created all over the country with specific jurisdictions”.
The function of the Insurance Ombudsman covers the entire spectrum of Insurance Business Life, General and Health Insurance. Maximum amount of compensation that can be awarded by this forum is limited to Rs 30 lakhs.
The Centre has been consistently resolving all complaints received from aggrieved policyholders well within the statutory limit of ninety days resulting in Nil pending of complaints at the end of the last financial year.