The renewal premiums for insurance cover of existing 13 lakh workers under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme Andhra Pradesh (NREGS AP) are yet to be paid. This has left many workers and their families in a big dilemma as there is no clarity on the status of claims which are in process.
Andhra Pradesh had started this concept of group insurance for poor people known as Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana. Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana (AABY) covers death and disability insurance for the benefit of rural landless households in the country. It provides insurance against natural as well as accidental and partial/ permanent Disability.
Under this initiative, the AP government offered insurance cover to workers of NREGS and tied up with Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) for the same. The Andhra Pradesh Government had received accolades for launching such a social security scheme for the poor people in rural areas. The annual premium for AABY is Rs.100 per individual. Additionally, the Rural Development Department collected Rs.15 as service fees from the insured.
But this year the state governments were directed by the Centre to cap their administrative expenditure to 6% of the total budget due to which the state is finding it difficult to pay the premiums of this insurance scheme.
In addition to the 13 lakh existing workers, there were 10 lakh fresh workers enrolled this year. Some of the beneficiaries have not received their money where claims were made a couple of months back. It remains unclear as to how will the state handle this serious matter.
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS)
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is sponsored by both the Central & State Government. The Scheme is implemented as a Centrally-Sponsored Scheme on a cost sharing basis between the Center and the State in the ratio of 90 and 10 percentages. The primary objective of the scheme is to provide livelihood security to the households in rural areas of thirteen notified districts by providing not less than 100 (one hundred) days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household, whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled and manual work.
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