HC issues notices to central govt, insurance companies

RANCHI: The Jharkhand high court has asked the central government and insurance companies to furnish their replies in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking direction to authorities concerned to pay compensation to farmers against crop loss or damage.

A division bench of chief justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and justice Sujit Narayan Prasad on Friday issued notices to the Centre and the insurance companies after adding them as opposite parties in the said PIL and sought their replies within two weeks.

Farmers of Jharkhand’s Chatra district have filed the PIL, highlighting that the insurance companies were yet to settle their claims for crop losses incurred in 2017 and 2018.

They stated that under the Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana launched in 2016, they had insured their crops but had suffered losses due to damage caused to them.

They submitted that they had applied to the insurance companies for claims against the crop loss but to no avail.

According to the petitioners, farmers in Chatra district alone had taken insurance coverage of their crops to the tune of ₹207 crore and ₹176 crore in 2017 and 2018, respectively. As per the scheme, insurance companies have to pay 25% of the total coverage in case of crop losses, they said, adding that they should get ₹52 crore and ₹44 crore as claims for year 2017 and 2018, respectively. The petitioners argued that even after two years, they were uncertain if their claims would be settled.