Deccan Herald

Udupi, Sep 3: The Udupi division of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India has finalised as many as 130 “Bima Schools” during the year 2005-06 thus occupying Number 1 position in the country, said M C Humberi, the Marketing Head for Udupi division.

Addressing a press conference as a part of golden jubilee celebrations of the LIC here on Saturday, he said the concept of Bima School was launched for bringing about insurance consciousness amongst the future citizens of the country (children).

Similarly, the Udupi division finalised as many as 71 “Bima Gramas” during the year 2005-06 and the division was one among the top four in the country. “The concept of Bima Gram was conceived with a view to have greater thrust and penetration in the rural areas.
 

In fact, a grant of Rs 25,000 is given to each Bima Gram,” Humberi said and added that one of the main conditions for a village to be declared as Bima Gram is that at least 75 per cent of households should possess insurance policies and the population of the village should be between 1,000 and 5,000.

Giving details about the policies, Humberi said the Udupi division sold a record 1, 17,561 Bima Gold policies, a close ended plan which closed on March 31, 2006. Similarly, the division sold 90,804 policies and emerged as the Number 1 division in the zone (comprising the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh) in absolute volume. This apart, the amount mobilised through First Premium Income was to the tune of Rs 89.55 crore placing the division in the top position in the zone.

“All our branch offices settled all maturity and survival benefit claims during the year 2005-06 and achieved ‘Nil’ outstanding status for the third consecutive year.” Speaking on the occasion, Senior Divisional Manager Surendra Behra said that all the 2,048 branch offices of LIC are connected through network enabling the policyholders to pay premium in any branch office.

Premiums can also be paid through internet and ATMs of Corporation Bank and UTI Bank. This apart, the policyholders can also register in the portal at website www.licindia.com to avail of certain services including payment of premium.

Satellite Sampark offices have been opened in select centres to offer customer interface services like new business processing, premium collection and to provide information on policies.

Plans are also on the anvil to open Satellite Sampark offices at Moodbidri and Holalkere (Chitradurga), he said.