Maharashtra's Agriculture Minister, Advocate Manikrao Kokate, said that the government has announced that it will roll out a compensation payout of Rs 2,555 crore under the crop insurance scheme for farmers across the state. This amount will be directly credited into the bank accounts of 64 lakh farmers. It will provide them with much-needed financial support. The authorities have also approved sending out Rs 2,852 crore as the pending state share of the subsidy to insurance companies. The government took this step to ensure that the outstanding compensation from the last season is immediately transferred to farmers’ Aadhaar-linked bank accounts. The government has asked the insurance companies to speed up the process. They are ensuring that the farmers can receive the benefits of this scheme to the earliest.
Insurance payouts will be disbursed for the losses borne by the farmers during various cropping seasons:
- Kharif 2022 and Rabi 2022-23: Rs 287 crore
- Kharif 2023: Rs 181 crore
- Rabi 2023-24: Rs 63.14 crore
- Kharif 2024: Rs 2,308 crore
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Earlier this year, Manikrao admitted that there were irregularities in the implementation of the Re 1 crop insurance scheme for farmers. He noted that places meant to worship god were shown as agricultural land to claim benefits, reported PTI. Kokate said that more than four lakh crop insurance applications, including the ones filed by those who live outside Maharashtra, have been rejected. He also said a bogus industry has come to light that involves non-eligible people trying to avail benefits of this initiative. Speaking about money, he said that no losses were incurred as funds were not transferred by the government into the bank accounts linked to bogus applicants, reported PTI.
Speaking with the media reporters, Kokate said instances of malpractices in this scheme are identified at various levels. There were cases of mosques, temples, and vacant lands being falsely declared as agricultural land to avail the benefits of this scheme. He said that he ordered the district collector to take prompt action in this case, reported PTI.
This scheme was introduced in the 2023 budget by then Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Under this scheme, the farmers can get their crops/lands insured for Re 1. Before this scheme was approved by the government, the farmers had to pay 2% of the insurance premium.