Thousands of farmers in Rajkot were out on a protest march demanding payment of insurance as their crop failed due to less than normal rainfall in the region.
Non-payment of crop insurance has turned out to be a major election issue in the Saurashtra and north Gujarat regions. Here, farmers are battling semi-drought and scarcity.
Total 1.5 million farmers are seeking crop insurance payments in a dozen districts in the two politically important regions in the State. However, in the past two weeks, thousands of farmers have staged protests demanding quick payment of their claims.
Many Congress legislators and the party’s farmers’ wing leaders staged a protest at the office of the Director of Agriculture in the State capital Gandhinagar. Apart from Congress, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, a farmers’ union affiliated to the RSS, has also demanded crop insurance payments.
Private insurance companies in 2016 has collected ₹2,360 crore as premium for the entire State against which only claims worth ₹954 crore were settled.
A farmer in Padadhari taluka of Rajkot district, Rambhai Ahir had placed a claim of ₹45,000. He said, “The Company has rejected it despite the taluka being declared scarcity-hit by the State government, which means there is drought.”
He also accused the BJP government at the Centre and the State of favoring private insurance companies at the cost of farmers.
BKS leader said “In the last several years, the issue of crop insurance has been a major problem because farmers complain that they don’t get money from the private insurance companies.”
However, in districts like Surendranagar, Rajkot, Morbi, Junagadh, Porbandar, Jamnagar, Dwarka, Sabarkantha, Arvalli and Banaskantha, farmers have held protests, organised rallies and submitted memorandum to the authorities.
Ratansinh Dodia, a farmers’ leader in Saurashtra region, said the private companies have not even approved 20% of the total claims submitted by the farmers in the region.
The companies are rejecting insurance claims in those areas which have been declared by the State government as scarcity-hit.
