The Comptroller and Audit General (CAG) has recommended an increase in funds for state Transport Corporations to meet the claims of accident victims.
Stating that Section 146 of Motor Vehicles Act exempts STCs, provided that they maintain a minimum insurance of ₹ 20 lakh to pay accident victims, the CAG said, “The government created a corpus fund of ₹ 20 crore in July 2010 to meet the need for compensation of accident victims subject to maintenance of similar amount by the Corporation.”
The report revealed that of the liability of ₹ 435.07 crore as compensation, the state Transport Corporations had paid ₹ 207.72 crore.
“But at the end of March 2016, a corpus of ₹ 59.10 crore alone was available.. Due to the insufficient corpus, there was a delay in settling claims of accident victims,” it said.
The report recommended that the government take up action to increase the corpus fund in STCs every year in order to meet the claim of accident compensation.
“The government and the State Transport Corporations may provide for disbursement of the entire amount of undisputed claim of compensation,” it added.