Farmers’ crop insurance scheme bigger scam than Rafale deal, claims activist

P Sainath claims insurance company committed fraud of Rs 145 crore in Soybean crop

Renowned journalist and activist, working on farmers issue, Palagummi Sainath, on Sunday alleged Reliance insurance company has committed a fraud of Rs 145 crore in a single district in insurance related to soybean crop.

The activist blamed crop insurance scheme brought by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government for farmers is a bigger scam than the Rafale deal scam.

Sainath was in Mumbai to attend the coordination meeting of Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sangharsh Samiti (The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee) The samiti has taken a decision to gherao Parliament during the Winter Session which will begin from November 18 to 30 in Delhi. The committee members termed the Centre and the state government as 'inactive' and said there is need to make them active on issues of farmers welfare.

Meanwhile, Sainath attacked the Modi government stating, “The present government's policies are antifarmer. The Pradhan Mantri Bima Fasal Yojana is a bigger racket than even the Rafale scam. Selected corporates like Reliance, Essar have been given the task of providing crop insurance,” said Sainath.

Citing an example of Maharashtra, Sainath said, “Some 2.80 lakh farmers sowed soya in their farms. The farmers paid a premium of Rs 19.2 crore, the state government and the central governments paid Rs 77 crore each, amounting to a total of Rs 173 crore, which was paid to Reliance Insurance. The entire crop failed and the insurance company paid out the claims. Reliance paid Rs 30 crore in one district, giving it a total net profit of Rs 143 crore without investing a single rupee. Now multiply this amount to each of the districts it has been entrusted,” he said.

Sachin Sawant, Congress spokesperson also criticised Modi and Devendra Fadnavis government over crop insurance scheme. “The letter issued by the State Bank of India revealed insurance companies are earning profit by denying benefits of insurance to the farmers,” said Sawant. He added, “Claims of Rs 10 crore were denied by the insurance companies from one of the branches of the HDFC bank. This indicates a huge amount of claims might have been denied from all other banks by the insurance companies.”

The Samiti has taken a decision to gherao the Parliament during the Winter Session which will begin in Delhi from November 18-30