New Delhi : Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Kailash Choudhary re-assured all the farmers of the country that the Central Government is committed for the overall development of the farmers and their interests will be fully protected.
Addressing a press conference in Rajasthan’s Barmer district today, Shri Choudhary said that “Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana” is working to provide security cover to crores of farmers of the country under the leadership of the Government of India and Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi. He said, the Centre is constantly trying for better implementation of the scheme in Rajasthan. Responding to the questions about farmers getting lesser amount of claims for Kharif 2021 in Barmer, Mr. Chaudhary said that a detailed report has been sought from the State Government in this regard and the Central Government is also examining the matter at its own level and soon the claims of the farmers will be paid properly.
On the issue of farmers in Barmer receiving small amount of claims under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Shri Chaudhary said that the distribution of claims to farmers is done application-wise, so there can be a situation where less claims have been received due to small area. In this regard, some data has been tested, in which it has been seen that the same farmer who has many fields, but the amount of claim on his small field is less and the amount of claim is more on the big field.
Admitting that low insurance claim can lead to dissatisfaction among the farmers, Shri Choudhary said, in this regard consultation with the State governments and companies is necessary, which will take some time for necessary action to deal with this situation.
Shri Choudhary also informed that on January 6, 2023, the Central Government wrote to all insurance companies that the claims of all the applications of any farmer should not be separately taken out but should be calculated in a consolidated manner, so that the farmer can understand easily and at one go that how much he will get in total.
Addressing the press, the Union Minister said that the insurance company proposed to the state government to implement the provision of preventive sowing in the entire district, in which context the state government implemented it only in 25 Patwars. Apart from this, the insurance company had to calculate the claim on the basis of yield data obtained from crop harvesting in all Patwar. In this regard the company had requested the “State Level Technical Advisory Committee” of the State Government to implement the provision of preventive sowing. The state committee again requested the central government and thereafter the central government got its technical analysis done by its Delhi-based institute Mahalanobis National Crop Forecasting Center (MNCFC) and sent the analysis report received from MNCFC to the state government for appropriate action. Nowhere in that report was there any confirmation of preventive sowing. Based on the analysis report received from MNCFC, the State Government’s Technical Advisory Committee again ordered the insurance company to release the claims of the farmers soon based on the yield data.
Mr. Choudhary narrated the complete sequence of the claim process and said that the insurance company again proposed an appeal in this regard before the National Level Technical Advisory Committee of the Central Government, which was immediately rejected by the Central Government as it was invalid. And at that time it was clarified by the Central Government that the provision of preventive sowing after a time limit under the scheme guidelines cannot be implemented and the company was ordered to give immediate claim on the basis of yield data. The company again sent the proposal to the appellate officer of the center but it was again rejected and the company was instructed to give proper claims to the farmers.
Clarifying about the claim of Kharif 2021, Mr. Chaudhary informed that after rejecting the appeal of the insurance company, the company gave some figures regarding the claim, in relation to which it was discussed with the state government, since these figures clarified the correct status of the insurance claim. was not happening, so during this time when the distribution of claims started, it was found that claims have been issued to some farmers in a very small amount. Taking quick action in this regard, the Central Government asked the company for the details of the claims distributed, in which it was found that due to the very small area of an insured farm of many farmers, claims have been made less in relation to some insurance applications. In this regard, when a farmer registers under the scheme, then a separate application is generated for his different fields and the premium and the insured amount of the policy relative to each application are based on the crop and the insured area.
Giving the example of Maharashtra, the Union Minister said that the Maharashtra government has made a policy regarding the minimum claim amount, where if the claim amount is less than Rs 1000, then the remaining amount is borne by the State government and the farmer is paid a minimum of Rs.1000. This provision is not there in other states, which includes Rajasthan, so a policy decision will be taken soon by the Central government in the interest of the farmers after discussing with all the States in this regard.
Mr. Kailash Chaudhary re-assured all the farmers of Rajasthan that the central government is examining this matter at its own level and the farmers will be paid the appropriate claim amount.
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