News and pics: Hemanath Padubidri
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Sep 27: The members of LIC Agents Organization of India (LICAOI) held dharna in front of the LIC divisional office here, opposing the ammendments proposed to be brought to the LIC Agents Regulation Act 1972, for two hours on the morning of Friday September 26.

The leaders of the organization said that the ammendments to the Act, tabled by the UPA government on July 31, 2009, have the potential to slowly and surely finish the operations of Life Insurance Corporation of India, a public sector undertaking, which has risen from just the initial capital of five crore rupees, to the present-day public sector behemoth with assets worth nine lac crore rupees. They said that the agents have contributed immensely for the growth of LIC and that the ammendments to the act, if passed, will deliver severe blow to the operations of the LIC. The ammendment proposes that every agent should bring a minimum of a lac of rupees as premium annually, with policies covering a minimum of 12 different lives. No commission is payable to agents who receive less than Rs 3,000 as renewal commission as per the ammendment. If these ammendments become law, over 50% of the agents will become jobless, they argued.

The proposed ammendments conveniently forget that the LIC was set up with the objective of providing insurance facility to every citizen, particularly to those in lower strata of the society and financially backward people. The very purpose of the formation of LIC will get defeated, if a majority of the agents, particularly those working in small places, are forced to walk out, they said.

They alleged that the ammendment is against the interests of the people in general and LIC customers and agents in particular and that the ammendments aim at appeasing the private sector insurance firms.

Udupi district president of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), Admar Sripati Acharya, inaugurated the picketing. U Gurudatt, general secretary, Udupi division, of LICAOI, addressed the protesters. Ramesh Kumar, general secretary of the local division of LICAOI, M  Devadas, president, Gurucharan Rao, state working president of LICAOI state committee, Bhaskar Putran, president of Mulki branch of the organization, Rekha Annaiah, vice-president of the organization's state committee and agents from various branches of LIC like Mulky, Karkala, Moodbidri, Kaup, Udupi, Kundapur, Brahmavar etc., participated.