Agrahara insurance benefits for all retired public servants

The Cabinet of Ministers has agreed to grant Agrahara insurance benefits to retired public servants numbering around 600,000 in the country.

The Cabinet approved the proposal that was presented by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Cabinet Spokesman Dr. Bandula Gunawardena said.

With this approval, public servants who retired before January 1, 2016 are entitled for Agrahara Insurance benefits. Earlier, only public servants who retired after January 1, 2016 were entitled to Agrahara Insurance benefits. Due to this, around 90 percent of retired public servants were deprived of the Agrahara Insurance benefit until now.

The Prime Minister moved the proposal to remove this clause allowing all retired public servants to benefit from this insurance scheme.

The government’s attention has also been drawn to expand the Agrahara Insurance benefits creating an environment for retired public servants to enjoy a better living standard.

Hence attention has been drawn to set up special wards in main hospitals representing all districts to provide health services to all public servants including the retired.

It was also proposed to provide more Agrahara Insurance benefits for public servants admitted to those wards in hospitals.

During the Cabinet meeting it was also observed that there are salary anomalies among retired public servants as some of them still earn a pension of less than Rs 20,000.

Hence the government decided to inform the National Wages Commission to submit proposals to the Cabinet to address this issue too.

(Source: Daily News – By Ishara Mudugamuwa)