As there has been an inordinate delay in disbursal of crop insurance claims of farmers, the State government is now mulling over fixing a schedule for clearing claims to mitigate the distress of farmers already burdened by crop loss.
Government sources revealed that crores of crop loss claims are yet to be settled. This includes about ₹530 crore claims still unpaid by insurance companies for 2016-17 and about ₹490 crore claims initiated for the kharif season in 2017-18. Claims are yet to be finalised for the rabi crop of 2017-18. Incidentally, these were drought years in most parts of the State.
“A farmer needs to be compensated for crop loss in a time bound manner since he has already suffered losses. We intend to fix a time frame for crop insurance claim settlement to the insurance companies from this kharif season,” sources in the government said. They also said that since empanelled insurance companies are finalised by the Union government, the State has less control over the companies. “Crop-cutting experiments to assess the quantum of damage takes time. Sometimes, farmers may also not have produced adequate documents. All these take time. However, inordinate delay in settling dues will affect a farmer, who has lost his crop, and compensation coming after two years is of little help to him.”
According to data available with the government, of the ₹1,016 crore claims made during kharif season in 2016, ₹885 crore has been disbursed so far, while ₹131 crore is pending. This pending amount, a senior government source explained, was due to confusion over interpretation of insurance norms pertaining to cotton, paddy, and chilli. “We have sought a clarification from the Union government since the interpretation for cotton yield is differing.” For the rabi season of 2016-17, claims worth nearly ₹400 crore are yet to be settled.
Similarly, for the crop losses reported in 2017-18 kharif season, a total claim of ₹577.28 crore has been initiated of which ₹85.55 crore has been paid to farmers so far.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister N.H. Shivashankara Reddy said he had already held meetings with insurance companies, and directions have been issued to settle all pending claims before the end of July. He also acknowledged that there is a need to compensate farmers within a stipulated time.
