Only implementation is questioned!
Insurance regulator, IRDAI, asks the Insurance Companies to honour farmers ‘crop insurance claims!
High Court petitioned for enquiry over crop insurance schemes! The Karnataka High Court ordered issue of notices to the Union and State governments on a Public interest Litigation petition seeking directions for the disbursal of crop insurance to the farmers who suffered loss due to drought and to ensure effective implementation of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojan (PMFBY) by strictly adhering to
mandated guidelines. The Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice L.Narayanaswamy and Justice P.S.Dinesh Kumar passed the order on the petition filed by Akhanda Karnataka Raitha Sanga based in Shapur of Yadgir District.
The petitioner, obviously, representing many farmers and taking time and energy with not a little amount of money and travel etc must be having certain drive to fight for a public cause. Knowing how the judiciary is already burdened by a heavy backlog has also taken time and paying attention had many loopholes in the PMFBY! It is not a secret that the scheme, a new one and we have to support the government and also at the same time we have to look at these farmer schemes not in a routine way but with certain mental agony, knowing well how bureaucracy operates in the country with so many farmer suicides in Maharashtra where the bureaucracy tried to avoid payment of compensation on some technical ground, the crop insurance schemes are not making big positive news in any big manner.
The petitioner has claimed (The Hindu, March 22, 2019) the PMFBY has been implemented in an improper manner! The farmers in the state have been deprived of what is due to them. Farmers were deprived of their premium as well as the crop insurance loss compensation. The farmers vulnerability, claims the petition before the High Court, has been only exacerbrated. The petitioner further said failure to follow the full mandate and procedure of the scheme has resulted in denial of crop loss compensation.
Media reports also point out the short-comings of the scheme, the petitioner has asked the authorities to investigate the total amount being paid to private insurance companies and also why the companies, numbering some 18 companies for denials of funds due for the farmers for their legitimate claims. The petition has asked for constituting a committee representing the Central and the State governments and go into the details of the disbursal and the withholding of the premium rates and the premiums so-collected, the fixation of threshold yields, the crop cutting experimented and the settlement of claims so far done etc. We are not sure whether this petition has prompted the insurance regulator (IRDAI).Let us all remember how the bureaucracy works in India.
Given this very discouraging big picture and also knowing how the many rural development focused agencies, from Nabard to other newly constituted agencies, the newly promoted Indian AGRICULTURAL insurance Corporation is not yet taken off, do you know? The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bheema Yojana, the Restructured Weather-Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS, cover a higher number of farmers. But large scale coverage has also resulted in higher claims from the sector (Times of India of the same date). The regulator IDARI has instructed insurance companies to meet with various stake holders and ensure there is adequate representation from all sides before rejecting claims. It is the election season, so it is in everyone interest if the government’s schemes are seen as succeeding!’So, the wider public can take it that the government’s schemes are having an election-eve urgency and publicity value!
Now, about the government crop insurance schemes spread and success. For the kharif 2016,rabi 2016-17 and kharif 2017 seasons, the total premiums collected by 18 insurance companies was Rs.42,114 crore, while Rs.32,912 crores has been paid out as claims. IRDAI’s 2017-18 that 4.7 crore farmers paid Rs.25,292 as cumulative premium. While the claims were Rs.26,051 crores. For the insurance industry it is unhealthy if the amount of claims is higher than the premium they collect. Despite a fairly decent harvest this fiscal, insurers continue to face high claims, says the insurance industry.
IRDAI instructed(on Wednesday) insurance companies ensure proper representation in stake holder meetings relating to crop insurance with deputation of senior level officers with adequate powers to decide major issues, if any. IRDAI also instructed the insurance companies how to conduct the meetings and, for each allocated clusters, in a collective manner for each major crops, not on an individual’s farm, to farm basis, also to put in charge senior level official to run the disbursal of claim amounts without any hitch. Also upload data on the National Crop Insurance Portal with the help of partner banks.
In case of an individual loss claims the companies should honour the request. In case of any rejection the same should be communicated to the individual in vernacular language, said the IRDAI.