PM’s Fasal Bima Yojana losing appeal
On the heels of a damaging report by the Agriculture Ministry early this week that farmers'' economy was ruined by demonetisation, yet another report is out in a RTI reply that may adversely affect the Bharatiya Janata Party as it says the much-vaulted Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is losing its appeal.
In the RTI reply to Jalandhar-based activist P P Kapoor, the Agriculture Ministry said as many as 1.05 crore farmers in the BJP-ruled states of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh dropped out of the scheme as only 4.9 crore insured their crops in 2017-18 to 5.7 crore in 2016-17.
Worst was Madhya Pradesh, where the number of farmers insuring the crops dropped by 40.47 lakh in 2017-18, followed by 31.25 lakh in Rajasthan, 19.47 lakh in Maharashtra and 14.69 lakh in Uttar Pradesh. In Maharashtra, 1.09 crore farmers had insured their crops in 2016-17, but their number came down to 89.53 lakh in 2017-18. The insurance companies'' profit also dropped from Rs 2424.23 crore to Rs 1617.94 cr.
The farmers'' plight is particularly in focus in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan that are among five states holding the Assembly elections and as such the BJP will be at a disadvantage from the crop insurance data coming out from the agriculture Ministry.
The ministry also revealed that 10 private insurance companies had earned a profit of Rs 15,795 crore in the two years. Crops of 2.47 crore farmers were insured in 21-states.
The ministry officials attribute the decline of interest in the scheme to the farm loan waiver in different states as those whose loans were waived did not insure their crops. The decline was also attributed to the cumbersome process of settlement of the insurance claim, particularly the time-taking process of physical verification of the insured crops.
In many cases, the insurance companies did not probe losses due to the local calamities and did not pay the claims. Some insurance firms delayed settlement as the concerned state governments had not paid their share of subsidy.
The RTI reply also endorses the Congress charge often levelled that the crop insurance only helped the insurance companies and not the farmers whose crops were damaged or lost. The ministry said the profit of the insurance companies went up from Rs 6459.64 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 9335.62 crore in 2017-18 as they paid less compensation in 2017-18.
Noticing fall in the farmers'' interest in the PM''s Fasal Bima Yojana, a provision was made effective from October 1 that the insurance company will pay 12% interest for any delay in the settlement of claims beyond two months of the prescribed cut-off dates.
In Madhya Pradesh, the insurance companied has insured crops of over 71.81 lakh farmers in 2016-17 and earned a profit of Rs 1862.32 crore. In the following year, 2.90 lakh less farmers insured their crops because of which the profit of the companies too dropped to just Rs 39.21 crore.
The BJP-ruled Gujarat is perhaps the only state where the farmers insuring their crops boomed during these two years from 5.20 lakh in 2016-17 to 17.63 lakh in 2017-18, resulting in the companies making bumper profit from s 40.07 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 2222.58 crore in 2017-18.
In case of Haryana, the number of farmers opting for the crop insurance remained more or less same, 13.36 lakh in 2016-17 to 13.51 lakh in the next year, but the insurance companies romped home better profit from Rs 71.83 crore to Rs 95 crore.