J&K flood: General insurers submit status report to High Court

Insurance companies with huge exposure to flood-hit J&K submitted their compliance reports to the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) High Court today.
"We have submitted our compliance report before the J&K High Court today in which we gave details of the number of claims we have already settled as well as the amounts paid against those claims so far," United Insurance Chairman and Managing Director Milind Kharat told PTI here today without disclosing the total amount his company paid to claimants.
However, according to insurance industry sources, all four state-run general insurers have reportedly cleared 10,000 claims, worth Rs 1,000 crore.

Earlier, Kharat had told PTI that his company had received 25,000 claims worth Rs 300 crore, and out of those, 200 claims were settled.
Prior to today's development, the heads of all four state-run general insurers and a number of private players met in the national capital on Monday to discuss the Supreme Court order asking them to speed up claim settlements arising from flood victims without the regular lengthy assessment process.
Companies whose representatives attended the meeting have huge exposure to flood-hit areas, industry sources said. Among the private sector players, with large exposure to J&K include ICICI Lombard and Bajaj Allianz.

Last Friday, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu had refused to interfere with a J&K High Court order to the companies, to pay claims of flood-affected people and rejected a plea by insurance companies seeking one month to carry out a survey before settling claims.
The court had also directed insurers to pay 50 per cent of the insured amount for policies above Rs 25 lakh and 95 per cent for policies below Rs 25 lakh as interim relief to people of the state who lost their properties in the recent floods.