Gopinath Munde farmers accident insurance scheme closed for a year

-No compensation for farmers who died after April 7

Aurangabad: The Gopinath Munde Farmers Accident Insurance Scheme (GMFAIS), which provided financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh to the heirs of farmers who died in accidents, has been closed for a year. This is because the State government failed to issue a Government Resolution (GR) to renew the scheme, leading to the agriculture department ceasing to accept insurance claim proposals under the scheme.

The GMFAIS was established in 2015 to provide financial assistance to the families of farmers who died from accidents, including snakebites or shocks or any other calamity while irrigating their crops at night. The scheme's term expired on April 6, 2022, and the state government was required to appoint a new insurance company to continue the programme. However, the government failed to make a decision, leaving farmers families in a difficult financial situation.

Although heirs of many farmers filed proposals with the agriculture department, the government has not provided financial assistance to any of them. The agriculture commissioner is expected to make a decision on the proposals between April 7 and August 22, 2022, but since the government has not taken any action, the department has stopped accepting new proposals.

On November 22, 2022, the government directed the agriculture department to accept proposals and send them to the agriculture commissioner, assuming a gap period from April 7 to August 22. However, the government has not made a decision on proposals for farmers who died in accidents after August 22, 2022.