Pointing to the poor rate of claim settlement in Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), former Minister and Congress leader Sharan Prakash Patil on Wednesday alleged that the scheme was designed not to benefit the farmers, but to allow private insurance companies to loot public money.
Addressing a media conference along with former legislator B.R. Patil and District Congress Committee president Jagadev Guttedar here, Mr. Patil said that a private insurance company had ‘plundered’ nearly ₹200 crore in Kalaburagi district alone in the last four years.
“As per the official data provided by the Agriculture Department, farmers and government in Kalaburagi district alone have paid as much as ₹221 crore premium in the last four years from 206-17. The amount paid to farmers through claim settlement for crop loss in the same period is just ₹26 crore. The private insurance company has thus made a profit of nearly ₹200 crore. If a private company loots ₹200 crore in one district, you can imagine how much public money is plundered in the entire country. The profit-mongering private insurance companies involved in the PMFBY are rejecting farmers’ claim to make more profit. The very purpose of the scheme is to help these private players and not the farmers. That is how the Modi government at the Centre is serving the private parties and cheating the farmers. It is the biggest fraud of Modi government,” Mr. Patil said.
Recalling the crop insurance scheme implemented during the regime of the United Progressive Alliance led by Congress, Mr. Patil added that the insurance companies then involved in the scheme were not private, but State-owned and, hence, there were no vested interests.
MSP
Criticising the government for delayed announcement of Minimum Support Price (MSP), Mr. Patil said that opening procurement centres after the small farmers sold their crops at fallen rates would help the traders and not the farmers.
“The area of green gram cultivation has expanded from 25,000 hectares last year to 63,000 hectares this year and that of black gram from 20,000 hectares to 35,000 hectares in Kalaburagi district. Thanks to the good monsoon, the yields of both crops are very good. Farmers have already started bringing the harvested crop to the market. But, procurement centres are not yet opened. Opening the procurement centres after small farmers sell their crop at lower prices would, in no way, help the farmers. The government should immediately open the procurement centres and purchase green gram at ₹8,000 a quintal and black gram at ₹ 6000 a quintal,” he said. He also asked the government not to cap the procurement quantity, but to purchase the entire crop grown.
