Reason? The increasing number of deaths of conservancy staff was putting pressure on the risk of life cover.

“We discontinued the scheme as LIC was running into heavy losses as the death ratio was on the rise. We made a counter-offer of increasing the premium but it was not accepted so we scrapped the scheme,” said Nilesh Sathe, country head and chief of group schemes for the public sector insurance firm.

Meanwhile, PMC responded to yesterday’s story in The Indian Express with a press note that said only 189 employees had died during the last two years — from October 2005 to September 2007 — and not 227 employees in the last 30 months as reported. It said that of the 189, one was a Class I employee, two were of Class II, 26 of Class III, and 159 of Class IV. The number of deaths among conservancy staff — engaged in garbage and sewage work — was only 108, it said.

But the PMC Employee Welfare department’s register, shown to The Indian Express yesterday, did not give this break-up: it only mentioned 107 deaths in 2006-07 and 40 deaths in the first six months of 2007-08. When specifically asked about the deaths in 2005-06, the reporter was told there were 80 and the figure was yet to be entered in the register. In all, that works out to 227 deaths in 30 months — as was reported.

The LIC insurance scheme offered a Rs 30,000 cover on death for over 10,000 Class IV employees, who paid Rs 60 per month. Of this Rs 21 went towards premium, and Rs 39 was set aside as a savings component to be paid on maturity.

A senior labour department official of PMC said that because of the high number of deaths in the last two and a half years, claims were still being cleared.

“This was a pro-worker scheme. Since LIC wanted to have direct talks with us on discontinuing the scheme, we also got the union people involved. As of now, the workers only have a Rs 15,000 cover under the Kamgar Kalyan Yojana, besides their individual policies,” he said.

Mukta Manohar, general secretary of the PMC union, who attended the final meeting, said that LIC made it clear that the group insurance scheme was not viable owing to the increasing number of deaths.

“They categorically told us that high mortality was one of the main issues for the scheme not being viable. A counter-offer of continuing the scheme with a higher premium was made but it was not acceptable to us and therefore the scheme was scrapped,” she said.

Dr Anant Phadke, a public-health specialist and state convener for Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, an apex body of health NGOs across the country, said that it was unfair to scrap the scheme for the PMC employees, who could be bracketed in the high-risk group.

“From bronchial asthma to lung infection to alcoholism — the list of their ailments is endless and the high mortality rate is alarming and should wake up the administration,” he said.

Meanwhile, talks are on between the PMC workers union and the State Bank of India for another group insurance scheme offering a Rs 50,000 cover.