Claim norms for missing be relaxed: Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna on Friday asked Finance Minister P Chidambram to relax banking norms that would help the family members or dependents of all those persons who went missing due to the natural disaster in the hill state.

After meeting Chidambram at his office in New Delhi, Bahuguna said he had urged the minister to relax banking norms on the lines of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), which has given waiver in the settlement of claims of missing persons. Under the existing norms, the death certificate is issued only after a seven-year period in the case of missing persons. LIC has given the waiver in settlement of claims without death certificates for the missing.

Bahuguna said there were many cases where the breadwinner of a family had gone missing in the disaster. "In such cases, the dependents can operate the bank accounts," he said.

The chief minister said the government had started the process of distributing compensation/financial assistance to the family persons of the missing. In this regard, he said the Centre needed to issue instructions to insurance companies and banks in the private sector also.

Bahuguna also asked Chidambram to waive service tax till March 31 to provide relief to hotels, restaurants and tourist businesses.

The chief minister said the government would issue a certificate, with the compensation amount for the benefit of availing insurance claims.

Saying tourism had been affected in Mussoorie, Nainital, Haridwar and Dehradun, the chief minister asked the minister to organise conferences related to banks and financial institutions in these places.