Kailash Choudhary during a press conference in Rajasthan's Barmer district said that ‘Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana’ aims to provide security cover to crores of farmers across the country under the leadership of the Government of India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He stated that the Centre is constantly working to improve the scheme's implementation in Rajasthan.
Responding to questions about farmers receiving less money for Kharif 2021 claims in Barmer, Chaudhary stated that a detailed report has been requested from the State Government in this regard, and the Central Government is also investigating the matter at its own level, and farmers' claims will be paid properly soon.
On the issue of farmers in Barmer receiving a small number of claims under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Chaudhary stated that claims are distributed to farmers application-by-application, so there may be a situation where fewer claims are received due to a small area. In this regard, some data was tested, and it was discovered that the same farmer has many fields, but the amount of claims on his small field is less and the amount of claims on his large field is greater.
Recognizing that low insurance claims can lead to farmer dissatisfaction, Choudhary stated that consultation with state governments and companies is required in this regard, which will take some time for necessary action to deal with this situation. Choudhary also stated that on January 6, 2023, the Central Government wrote to all insurance companies requesting that the claims of all applications submitted by any farmer be consolidated so that the farmer can easily and quickly understand how much he will receive in total.
Addressing the press, the Union Minister stated that the insurance company proposed to the state government that the provision of preventive sowing be implemented throughout the district, but the state government only implemented it in 25 Patwars. Aside from that, the insurance company was required to calculate the claim using yield data obtained from crop harvesting in all Patwar. In this regard, the company had requested that the State Government's ‘State Level Technical Advisory Committee’ implement the provision of preventive sowing.
The state committee again requested the central government, and the central government had its technical analysis done by its Delhi-based institute Mahalanobis National Crop Forecasting Center (MNCFC), and then sent the MNCFC analysis report to the state government for appropriate action. There was no mention of preventive sowing in that report. Based on the MNCFC analysis report, the State Government's Technical Advisory Committee ordered the insurance company to release the farmers' claims as soon as possible based on the yield data.
Choudhary described the entire claim process and stated that the insurance company proposed an appeal in this regard before the National Level Technical Advisory Committee of the Central Government, which was immediately rejected as invalid by the Central Government.
The Central Government clarified at the time that the provision of preventive sowing after a time limit under the scheme guidelines could not be implemented, and the company was ordered to make an immediate claim based on yield data. The company sent the proposal to the center's appellate officer again, but it was rejected, and the company was told to give proper claims to the farmers.
The Union Minister used the state of Maharashtra as an example, noting that the Maharashtra government has a policy regarding the minimum claim amount, according to which the State government is responsible for paying the farmer a minimum of Rs. 1000 if the claim amount is less than Rs. 1000. The Central government will soon make a policy decision in the interest of the farmers after consulting with all the States in this regard because other states, including Rajasthan, do not have this provision.
