Finally, farmers to get crop insurance claims of Rs 229 cr

CHANDIGARH: Almost two months after The Tribune reported that ICICI Lombard, an insurance company, has rejected claims of farmers of Sirsa and Bhiwani districts, the company on Monday approved the first instalment of farmers’ claims of Rs 229 crore.

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 15

Almost two months after The Tribune reported that ICICI Lombard, an insurance company, has rejected claims of farmers of Sirsa and Bhiwani districts, the company on Monday approved the first instalment of farmers’ claims of Rs 229 crore.

Dushmanta Kumar Bahera, Director, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department, told The Tribune on Monday that ICICI Lombard had informed the government that they have on Monday released the first instalment of the claims of 35,021 cotton farmers from Sirsa, amounting to Rs 229 crore.

Bahera said that of this, the claims of Rs 32.48 crore were of 5,059 farmers of Baragura block of Sirsa, Rs 54.29 crore of 8,070 farmers of Dabwali block, Rs 24.15 crore of 2,853 farmers of Ellenabad block, Rs 36.19 crore of 7,413 farmers of Nathusari Chopta block, Rs 18.94 crore of 3,224 farmers of Odhan block, Rs 34.17 crore of 4,348 farmers of Rania block and Rs 29.6 crore of 4,054 farmers of Sirsa block.

He said the company has informed the government that the amount would soon be transferred to the bank accounts of the farmers.

On August 14, The Tribune had reported that ICICI Lombard had rejected claims of cotton crop of Sirsa and Bhiwani districts and challenged the outcome of crop-cutting experiments (CCEs) carried out by the department.

The results of the CCEs, which calculate the yield of crop, form the basis of insurance claims. The insurance company had also contested the methodology in CCEs and quoted satellite evidence to prove its point. The department had alleged that the matter was never raised when it settled the claims in five other districts where the amount of losses was lower.

“Our department took up the matter with Centre and the matter went to the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) constituted under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. We pleaded the case of farmers with facts and finally, on September 23, the TAC directed ICICI Lombard to finalise the claims in three days and transfer the money in farmers’ accounts in three days,” Bahera added.