6 months on, farmers wait for crop loss claim settlement

Shiv Kumar Sharma

Tribune News Service

Yamunanagar, July 19

Farmers are made to run from pillar to post to get their crop insurance claims settled due to the negligence of the insurance company for the past several months.

Kulwant Singh, a resident of Bhagwanpur village in the district, says that his paddy crop on five acres was damaged due to heavy rain in 2016. He and other farmers of the village were invited to the office of the Agriculture Department in Panchkula, where Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar handed over specimen cheques of the compensation to them.

“The programme was held on January 13. The Chief Minister told us that the claim amount of the crop damage would be transferred in their bank accounts within three days. Even after more than six months, we have not got received our compensation,” said Kulwant Singh.

He said that they had been making rounds of banks, but branch managers always told them that the insurance company had deposited the amount, but it had failed to submit the list of claimants.

Gurbachan Singh and Avtar Singh of Bhagwanpur village, whose 10 acres of paddy crop (5 acres each) was also damaged by rain, said that their compensation should be given at the earliest.

After not getting any response from the insurance company and the banks, several farmers, including Amar Singh of Badi Majra, Rajiv Dua and Khairati Dua of Urjani village, Kulwant Singh of Bhagwanpur and Fakir Chand of Pinjori village had lodged their complaints at the CM Window and demanded strict action against the insurance company and release of their compensation at the earliest.

Dr Aditya Pratap Dabas, Deputy Director, Agriculture, said that they had written to their senior officers to instruct the insurance company to submit the list of claimants at the earliest so that the farmers could get their compensation.

“The insurance company has cleared the compensation of about Rs 2.93 crore of 1,932 farmers of the district for the last year’s damage to the paddy crop,” said Dabas.

Sources said that the insurance company, which was given the crop insurance work of the district in 2016, had been replaced with other insurance company this year.