J-K governor cancels insurance contract with Reliance group

Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik has cancelled the state government's tie up with Reliance General Insurance for providing the group mediclaim health insurance policy to employees as there was "some bungling" in it.

The decision comes after the mandatory Reliance insurance for the state government employees and pensioners had sparked a row.

"The employees wanted it to be cancelled because there was some bungling in it. I saw the file and when I reached the conclusion that something is wrong in it, it did not take me a minute to cancel it," he told reporters on the sidelines of a function here Thursday.

The governor refused to name anyone involved in the alleged malpractice but said "those involved will be punished".

Reacting to the development, former chief minister Omar Abdullah said the governor should order an inquiry headed by chief secretary to establish who was behind allotment of insurance contract to the Reliance group.

"The Hon @jandkgovernor now needs to order an inquiry headed by the Chief Secretary to establish who was behind the allotment of the insurance contract. The sums of money involved are too big for this to have been a straight forward mistake," he tweeted.

Omar in another tweet said it was not enough to cancel the contract and the guilty should be exposed and punished.

"Fraud by whom? The guilty must be exposed & punished. Just cancelling the contract is not enough," he said.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi had earlier taken a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allegedly favouring Anil Ambani after the Jammu and Kashmir government gave the company the contract for executing the government employees mediclaim policy.

"When your BFF is the PM, you can get the 1,30,000 Cr. Rafale deal, even without relevant experience. But wait. There's more! Apparently, 4,00,000 JK Govt staff will also be arm twisted into buying health insurance ONLY from your company!," he had tweeted.

The Jammu and Kashmir government had on September 20 rolled out the group mediclaim health insurance policy for its employees, pensioners and accredited journalists of the state.

It had tied up with Reliance General Insurance for the mediclaim policy, which was made mandatory for the employees and pensioners.