Dear friends!
This comes as a follow up to my earlier reviews on so called ’’Consumerism’’- Where we are supposed to be the kings. I guess I should start a public consensus campaign against the attrocities we all have to go through the hands of our beloved Indian companies.
This is yet another case (of the millions that have gone untold and hence unnoticed)that presents a classic example of how desperate the situation is for our consumers. Now, this time it our very Public Company.
Public sector companies as per Nehru’s vision were formed to selflessley serve public interest and look how the interest of public is being lacerated by these sleeping monoliths...perhaps sleeping and waiting for their extinction.
Now, this case study that I am presenting is a real-life case with original names..so read on and see how much water our management principles hold in some of these companies.
It was August 13, 1994. Ahmedabad-based D P Agarwal, along with a friend B M Bhatt, Bhatt’s wife Manju and their young son were driving on the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar highway in his Maruti 800 when a truck moving in the opposite direction rammed into the side of the car. Agarwal, who was driving the car was badly injured, but Manju Bhatt, who was sitting right behind the driver’s seat took the brunt of the impact and died on the spot. Her husband and child, however, escaped unhurt and completed the formalities of filing a First Information Report (FIR) with the police.
Agarwal’s car was completely damaged and when he recovered, he lodged a claim with his insurer, the New India Assurance Company. Since his papers were in order, he expected the claim process to be a simple formality; instead, he found himself caught up in a harrowing five-year battle which exemplifies the bizarre lengths to which a nationalised insurance company would go to deny a rightful claim.
Four months after Agarwal filed his claim, New India wrote to him turning it down. The insurance company had got hold of the driver of the killer truck and made him to swear an affidavit before a Jamnagar executive magistrate saying that at the time of the accident, the car was not driven by Agarwal, but by the deceased Manju Bhatt.
In fact, Manju Bhatt had never learnt driving and did not even possess a license!!!! But that is precisely what New India and the truck driver tried to use to their advantage. The truck driver could escape liability and NIAC could use the statement to repudiate the insurance claim - a paltry Rs 1.35 lakh, claiming that the car was being driven by a person without a license.
Grieved and humiliated Agarwal then approached the court (No points for guessing what happend to an otherwise emotionally stable person!!)and registered a complaint. And after going through a harrowing experience of dates, hearing, arguments and more dates, more hearings...At the end of September 2000 Court ruled in favour of Agarwal.
Now you might think that eventually Agarwal got justice..but wait a minute he got justice only because he was lucky as hell to have concrete evidence in place. The court noted that Manju’s husband Bhatt had filed the FIR within hours of the accident which claimed the life of his wife. In his bereaved state, he was unlikely to manipulate his statement to safeguard Agarwal’s insurance claim. The police panchanama which described the tyre marks of the breaking truck also independently indicated that it was the rashly driven truck which hit the Maruti.
Also, immediately after the accident, the truck driver had made a statement to the police which was completely contradictory to the evidence he tried to fake for the insurance company a few months later.
Therefore, he got justice and the money that he righfully deserved for placing his trust in our very own state owned company who is supposed to be bound by the sole objective of serving many such agarwals. So Agarwal got his 1.35 lakh along with 18 per cent interest from the date of accident until payment plus a compensation of Rs 10, 000 (ONLY!!!!!) for inconvenience, harassment and mental agony.
Agarwal may have won, but look at who lost ..but did anyone lose in the first place is my question. NIAC was liable to payout from the day one but the paltry compensation and award is unlikely to deter them from indulging in such despicable acts in the future.
There was a voluntary Code of Conduct which insurance companies followed before nationalisation. After nationalisation, the Code was considered redundant for the nationalised sector. Remember Nehru’s dreams....
Increased competition after the opening up of the insurance sector would hopefully reduce aggravation of the type suffered by Agarwal by driving business to more customer-friendly companies. But the size and network of the nationalised insurance sector will ensure that it is a slow switchover.
One reason why companies such as New India Assurance have got away by ignoring consumers is the inadequacy of court cases filed against them and the reasons are obvious.
Now with the opening up of the insurance sector, we are on the verge of experiencing a host of CUSTOMER CENTRIC organisations(atleast I am keeping my fingers crossed)..but with the chronic delays in clear cut policy guidelines and a strict code of conduct, it is upto any body’s estimation as to whe we will get to experience the joy of buying a product or a service. Till such time we are the King without a kingdom!!
Before I sign off this review, I would just request all the members reading this review to please contribute their opinions and views on how as a consumer we can help the situation and in turn help ourselves..for this is our forum and we need to make a difference!