State Conferences

After the formation of the association, district committees were formed under the state committee during District conferences. Later, the first State conference was held at the Teacher’s centre in Ernakulam. Anwar Basha and V.S Sreenivasan were elected as the State President and General Secretary respectively.

The second State conference was also held in Ernakulam at the YMCA hall, where Anwar Basha was elected as the State President and A. Radhakrishnan as the General Secretary. The third State conference was held in Palakkad, electing Anwar Basha and V.S Sreenivasan were elected as the State President and General Secretary respectively. The fourth State conference which was held in Kannur elected M.A Sathar as the State President and V.S.Sreenivasan as the General Secretary.

Meetings

An appeal concerned with the issues of Agents was submitted in person to the then National Finance Minister Shri.P.Chidambaram on September 7, 2007.

Anwar Basha, V.S.Sreenivasan, M.Radhakrishnan, V.Shashi, T.R.Akhilesh, T.V.Prashanthan, P.K.Reghunathan, Chandran.T were together present at the meeting.

It was the then M.P of Palakkad, N.N.Krishnadas who arranged the meeting and initiated discussions with the Finance Minister.

In 2014, the petition group went to Delhi once again and submitted the appeals to the then Finance Minister, Shri. Namo Narayan Meena. Apart from these two journeys, we once more went to Delhi to meet Arun Jaitley and held discussions with other ministers on different issues.

In 2021, under the ‘Unorganized Social Welfare scheme’, the representatives of our association on behalf of the insurance agents of State Public sector, held talks with the then Chief Minister Shri.Pinarayi Vijayan and Labour Minister Shri.T.P.Ramakrishnan.

Under the leadership of Confederation of Agents Association, the ‘General Insurance Agents Summit’ was held on March 7, 2020 in Bangalore in which our representatives of AIGIAA took part.

We visited the head offices of United India Insurance in Chennai twice, National Insurance Company in Kolkata once, Oriental Insurance company in Delhi once, to hold talks with the company chairmans and to submit various appeals. The officials in the head office of New India Insurance company in Delhi were also contacted.

Raising various other issues, State president M.A Sathar, General Secretary V.S.Sreenivasan, working president Roy John, also met the IRO in Hyderaabad and presented the appeals.

Protests

Several protests were organized under the association demanding various needs. When the companies altered the health insurance commission of the agents causing them detrimental effects, we blocked the RO office in Kochi against the change and demanded other rights. Along with this, various other strikes were also staged in front of the RO, DO branch offices.

A Raj Bhavan march was also conducted on raising various demands such as to accept the agents as employees and to implement welfare schemes for them. On account of the march, two state wide announcement drives were also organized.

An Insurance bandh was called for the first time in the history in solidarity with the vehicle owners at the wake of high charges in TP premium for different vehicles. On April 5, 2017, with the support of all labor parties in the state, the bandh was successfully undertaken by the agents without taking a single policy for the day and shutting down all the portal offices.

As a result of this, the company authorities agreed to reduce the TP premium to a considerable amount.

In 2021, July 23, protests were staged before the four public sector insurance offices, demanding the restoration of incentives scheme which was ceased during the pandemic.

On account of the prevailing situation, where the agents are neglected by the company authorities, A ‘Star Agents meet was conducted at the Rinae’s hotel with the goal of moulding the agents to protest against this treatment and to shape them as a pressurising group to fulfill their needs.

On January 13, 2022, dharnas were conducted in front of the RO offices of Kozhikkode and Kochi,demanding a TP commission of 15% and in protest against the government’s move to privatise public sector companies.

On similar grounds, our Association representatives also hold talks with various DGMs on various day to day issues.

Achievements

Our timely interventions were helpful to restore TP commission at least on a small scale.

The circular released on granting 2.5% TP commission to the agents also mentions our association. That was an achievement to be proud of forever.

Conforming to our demands, the insurance agents of the state’s public sector companies were approved as members of ‘Unorganized Social Welfare Scheme’. The Labor and Skill Minister, T.P Ramakrishnan inaugurated this on 5-11-2020, by distributing the first membership.

Agent corners were also permitted in all companies. Our demands were abke to Clear the payment lag of agent commissions.

Based on the promise given by the central finance minister, companies started to implement different incentives on various levels, intervened to increase the portal charge of various companies and restored the incentives scheme, which was once freezed during the pandemic.

All India Coordination

Joining hands with similar associations working in the same manner as us, we were able to establish the ‘Confederation of General Insurance Agents Association’. The All India coordinator of this organization in the earlier times was Roy John.

Our representatives had also participated in the conference conducted under the confederation on March 7, 2020.

Following this, we registered our confederation with respect to the Central Government’s Non Trading Company Act.

The Association’s state president M.A.Sathar, Gen.Secretary V.S.Sreenivasan and the current National coordinator Satheesh Babu were elected to the director board in Karnataka, which was chaired by Lokesh.

The Confederation undertook various programs. As a recognition of these activities, Lokesh, the chairman of the Confederation was nominated to the GIC council by the Central Government. We can also be proud of this recognition.

Acknowledgement

Gratefully remembering and acknowledging:

IRDA former Chairman and a Keralite, Vijayan sir has immensely helped us from the beginning of the association’s formation and all its activities so far.

The petition demanding the restoration of the TP Commission was kindly considered due to which 2.5% TP commission was approved.

Also the honorable former MPs including Shri.N.N.Krishnadas, Shri. N.K.Premachandran, Shri.P.T.Chacko, Shri.P.K Karunakaran who served us arrangements to hold talks with many ministers and also took part in the conversations.

The then Chief minister, Shri. Pinarayi Vijayan and labor minister Shri.T.P.Ramakrishnan who approved Welfare schemes for the agents.