UP excludes sugarcane from crop insurance
MEERUT: A day after making it mandatory for insurance companies to reimburse farmers’ claims for damaged crop in 21 days, the Yogi Adityanath government on Wednesday decided to exclude sugarcane from the list of crops under the PM Fasal Beema Yojna.
Lakhs of cane farmers of the state, especially in western UP, were demanding this for over a year and the BJP had promised to exclude sugarcane from the list if it came to power in the state.
Talking to HT over phone, Suresh Kumar Rana, minister of state for sugarcane, said he moved the proposal in the cabinet for excluding sugarcane from the list of crops covered under PM Fasal Beema Yojna and it had been accepted now. He claimed it would benefit lakhs of cane farmers who were up in arms against the decision of the previous state government.
Appreciating the decision of the state government, Bharatiya Kisan Union’s spokesperson Dharmendra Malik said: “We welcome the decision. BKU had been demanding to exclude sugarcane from the list for quite a long time and had given a representation against it.”
On the demand of farmers, union agriculture minister Radhamohan also had written a letter to the previous Samajwadi Party government to denotify sugaracne from the list of crops, but nothing happened.
Sugarcane is considered a sturdy crop which is least affected by harsh weather and this was the reason farmers were against including it in the list of crops for insurance.
“It was included only to benefit insurance companies, which was also evident by the fact that authorities concerned made it compulsory for farmers to deposit premium installment at the time of taking loans for their crop and other agriculture works,” claimed Malik.
Jagdish Singh, a sugarcane farmer and pradhan of Chabaria village in Sardhana tehsil, appreciated the decision explaining that farmers seldom received any reimbursement for their damaged crop against premium installments deposited.
Malik said majority of marginal and big farmers used their Kisan credit cards in western UP and banks used to deduct premium at the time of giving them crop loan or when they came to deposit installments of their loans.