Complaints aplenty against insurance firms

Vizag city has two consumer forums located opposite the district court complex. There are nearly 700 cases pending with consumer forums in the city. After insurance companies, a maximum number of complaints are against medical negligence followed by grievances against realtors.

President of Forum of Legal Professionals Kuppili Muralidhar said around 350 cases are pending in Forum-I and 300 in Forum-II. Pendency has been increasing due to the inadequate staff at the forums, he said. According to the data of the consumer forums, of the total 700 pending cases, more than 350 complaints are against private insurance companies. This is followed by cases against negligence of doctors at various hospitals and real estate developers. There are complaints against consumer durable firms but their number is relatively less.

In the last few months, complaints against private insurance companies were on the rise. Complaints included those related to unfair business practices like customers being forced to pay more amount of premiums and for more times, delay in settling the bonds. Many times, people invest in insurance companies lured by the attractive advertisements and later, fall victims.

Many a time, the private insurance companies make an appeal in the state commission or national commission or even in the apex court to buy time.

In the real estate sector, lack of adequate government regulation and failure of the real estate developers in fulfilling their promises to the buyers are leading to litigations. Many of the cases in this sector are relating to delay in posession of flats or in refund of money, Mr Muralidhar said.

When asked about what was leading to delay in completion of projects, many realtors said the high prices of cement, sand, iron and other construcation material, shortage of labour were creating hurdles in handing over flats to owners.