Unable to pay crop loan, forget insurance cover for Kharif season

Unable to pay crop loan, forget insurance cover for Kharif season

Pune: Following Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s announcement in the Assembly that the deadline for subscribing to Union government’s crop insurance scheme will not be extended beyond August 5, the sources at State Agriculture Department revealed that so far they have received nine lakh online applications from farmers to subscribe to this scheme.

A highly placed source at Statistical Branch of Agricultural Department said that out of these applications, around 6.5 lakh applications were filed at common service centres (CSCs). It will take at least a month to understand how many farmers have subscribed to this scheme.  For last two days, the Opposition parties raised concerns in the Assembly stating that due to less rainfall in Vidarbha and Marathwada, the farmers were in dire need of insurance cover. 

And demanded that the deadline be extended by a fortnight. Meanwhile, CM Fadnavis said that this deadline cannot be extended beyond August 5 as crop insurance is business related to risk and as insurance companies do re insuring, the deadline cannot be extended further.

Fadnavis said this in the Assembly on Tuesday while answering question asked by Opposition party leader Radhakrishna Vikhe- Patil. He said that only 11 lakh out of one crore farmers have subscribed to crop insurance and if the deadline ends on August 5, several farmers will remain out of insurance net.

While speaking in the Assembly, Fadnavis said that last year, many cases were reported wherein the same farmer had applied for crop insurance at different banks. He said that to avoid this, the KYC has been made compulsory.

The top officials at Statistical Branch of Agricultural Department said that the unlike earlier, off line applications, will be accepted. However, on Monday, Agricultural Minister Pandurang Fundkar announced that the applications will be only accepted in banks and not at CSCs as were accepted earlier.

Farmers’ distress
† District President of Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, Parbhani, Manik Kadam, said, “CSC owners are illegally charging Rs 80 to Rs 150 per application for crop insurance, this is apart from the government commission paid to them which is Rs 24 per application.” Kadam said that despite government’s order, not a single bank in Marathwada and Vidarbha accepted applications on Tuesday.
† Kadam said that the applications of farmers for insurance having standing crop loans against their accounts are being denied insurance. Kadam said the banks are asking farmers to repay their loans first in order to qualify for crop insurance scheme.

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