Few takers for crop insurance

Law Minister J.C. Madhuswamy at the KDP meeting in Hassan on Friday. (Source: Special Arrangement)

Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs J.C. Madhuswamy took officers to task over only a few farmers applying for crop insurance in the rabi season this year.

At a KDP review meeting here on Friday, the Minister noted that only 118 farmers had taken crop insurance in the district. Among them, there were none from Channarayapatna, Sakleshpur and Alur taluks.

Mr. Madhuswamy wanted to know from the officers of the Agriculture Department and Lead Bank the reason for it. K. Madhusudan, Joint Director of Agriculture Department, and Basavaraj of Lead Bank failed to give a satisfactory response.

Warning

The Minister said even those who took crop loan were not covered under the insurance scheme. He warned the officers of disciplinary action for their failure in educating the farmers about the scheme and extending them the benefits.

Hospitals

While reviewing the schemes of the Health and Family Welfare Department, the Minister took note of people preferring private hospitals to government hospitals for deliveries. He said that the officers failed to attract people to the government hospitals. The field workers were not being utilised properly. “You should stop supporting the private hospitals”, he said and also warned District Health Officer K.M. Sathish Kumar of disciplinary action.

H.K. Kumaraswamy and K.M.Shivalinge Gowda, MLAs, alleged that many government doctors refer patients to private hospitals as the two had an understanding.

“In many cases, the government doctors ask the patients to go to a particular private hospital, where they treat them. The government should stop government doctors going to private hospitals”, said Mr. Shivalinge Gowda.

Vacancies

When the MLAs raised the issue of vacancies in hospitals, the Minister said the government had taken enough care to ensure gynaecologists were posted in all hospitals. “It is the failure of officers concerned if they have let posts of gynaecologists remain vacant”, he said.

MLAs A.T. Ramaswamy, C.N. Balakrishna, Preetham Gowda; MLC Gopalaswamy; Deputy Commissioner R. Girish, ZP CEO B.A. Paramesh, SP Ram Nivas Sepat and others were present.