Farmers given ₹1 as insurance for crops: Ajit Pawar

MUMBAI: Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former deputy chief minister, Ajit Pawar, on Tuesday, took on the Bharatiya Janata Party (Bjp)-led state government in the assembly, for its apathy towards farmers. Pawar pointed out the lacunae in the farmers’ crop insurance scheme.

Pawar said that while the state had paid its share of premium worth ₹3,948 crore to insurance companies in 2016 for the khariff season, the companies had collectively handed over only ₹1,725 crore as insurance to farmers for crop losses.

“The companies seem to have netted a profit of ₹2,223 crore. In 2017 khariff season (cropping season from July to October), farmers and state share for insurance worked out to ₹3,700 crore. The companies have agreed to hand out ₹1,882 as compensation to farmers,’’ said Pawar.

Citing an example from Parli taluka in Beed district of Marathwada, Pawar said that as many as 773 farmers here had got a hand out of ₹1, while 649 farmers had been given ₹2. About 50 farmers received ₹50 and around 139 of them received ₹5 as insurance compensation.

“I am reading the figures out from the list of beneficiaries cited by the Beed district co-operative bank to just give one example of the mess on ground. Nearly 15,600 farmers here paid insurance premium worth ₹51 lakh last year but got peanuts in return for the crop losses. The crop insurance scheme is being run by the government for insurance companies and not for farmers,’’ said Pawar.

Opposition leaders were speaking on various issues concerning farmers including poor implementation of loan waiver.