Question : Pendency of Farmer Insurance Claims

(a) the details of the pending claims to be disbursed to farmers by the insurance companies in the last three years in Maharashtra, district-wise;

(b) whether the Government has received complaints about the unavailability of agents belonging to these insurance companies and if so, the details thereof along with the details of the action taken by the Government against such agents;

(c) whether the Government has received complaints regarding problems being faced by farmers in filing premium under the crop insurance scheme; and

(d) whether the Government has taken any action against the insurance companies who are delaying the disbursement of premium to farmers in Maharashtra?

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

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(a): District-wise details of pending claims under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) in Maharashtra during last three years are given in Annexure.

(b) to (d): During implementation of the scheme, some complaints about unavailability of offices and agents of insurance companies, problems being faced by the non-loanee farmers in filing the premium, non-payment and delayed payment of claims; under payment of claims on account of incorrect/delayed submission of insurance proposals by banks; discrepancy in yield data, unrealistic assessment of crop loss due to large unit area of insurance; delay in providing Government share of funds, non functioning of dedicated toll free telephone numbers of insurance companies etc., have been reported in the past in the
country including Maharashtra. Most of the complaints were suitably addressed by the Insurer and the Ministry.


Contd…2/-

-2-


However, as per provisions of the scheme insurance companies have to open a functional office at Tehsil level in each district, deployment of at least one agent at block level in the allocated districts and have to deploy one agriculture graduate in each district. Details of the offices including contact number of the person should compulsorily be uploaded on National Crop Insurance Portal and provided to the State Government. This is one of the key Penalty /performance indicators and specific points have been allocated for non-performance of this provision at the time of monitoring/evaluation of empanelled insurance companies and further imposition of monetory penalty.

For non-loanee farmers since crop insurance is optional, the Common Service Centres (CSCs) and online enrolment have also been activated to provide the services including enrollment besides traditional modes like banks/PACS and insurance intermediaries.

Further, there is a provision of 12% interest rate per annum to be paid by the Insurance Company to farmers for delay in settlement claims beyond 10 days of prescribed cut off date for payment of claims.

The concerned State Governments have been asked to take action including imposing of penalty against defaulting insurance companies as per the Revised Operational Guidelines of the scheme.