Editor's note
All of us who have worked for the Life Insurance Corporation of India must rejoice ! Here's a news item appearing in newspapers that the Corporation has achieved "an unmatched 99.47% claim settlement record for the last year". All of us had a long innings in the Corporation and we should be really proud that though we could not achieve this record during the long years of our work in the Corporation, alas ! that coveted goal is achieved. And we should be normally proud of this.
My dears friends, but let me ask one odious and unpalatable question: Is it really so? Is it true that we have really smashed previous records and created new ones?
I have my own doubts. My experience shows that such records are not really achieved but more often such "office records" are created !
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I took up many-a-genuine project in LIC and an attempt was made to accomplish the same. Work in departments like L&M (HPF) ,NB Dept. etc. was reorganised.
During these days in the middle Eighties, an attempt was also made to achieve 100% maturity claim settlement. Worked many months with the vigour and vitality of a young man for the same. I could nearly accomplish this feat of achieving 100% claim settlement. A solitary claim, however, remained unsettled. That was a survival benefit claim. At the end of the year, the claim settlement was 99.99%.
Years passed by. More youngsters came forward. They too staked claims for 100% settlement. I believed they were really doing it. I could not think otherwise.
After a few years when I was working as AO in a particular Branch Office under Kozhikode Division I found out, much to my shock and dismay, that they too had achieved 100% claim settlement, but without any sweat and toil. When a scrutiny was made, it was found that a number of claims, claimed to have been settled in the Branch Office, was actually "settled" without collecting even the basic requirements like Policy document, signed claim discharge forms, etc. Cheques were kept drawn in favour of these policyholders. Some of these cheques were later cancelled/fresh cheques issued. That was also called "achievement", no doubt. But achievement with a difference.
I just happen to recollect this incident when I saw the latest claim of achieving "unmatched 99.47% claim settlement". We have indeed a long way to go before these practices are stopped and some real achievements are accomplished!
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I found the news item in Facebook. But the comments are made here for obvious reasons!