Despite the resentment over the nonpayment of compensation to farmers in time, the Government of Odisha has set an ambitious target of enrolling 25 lakh farmers under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) by July 31 in the ongoing Kharip season that will cover 20 lakh hectares of the Kharip crop.
Of them 20 lakh are loanee farmers and 5 lakh are non loanee farmers. Till date data uploading of 7 lakh farmers has been done and the date for uploading of data has been extended up to August 14, though cutoff date remains July 31.
During the last year, 8.5 lakh farmers were enrolled to cover 15 lakh hectares of land.
This will cover all 6,799 Gram Panchayats(GPs) and 114 Urban local Bodies (UlBs). The commercial banks have been asked to enroll farmers on priority basis.
Besides, Banks Common Service Centres (CSCs) and Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACs) are entrusted with the task to mobilize more non loanee farmers and a special incentive has been declared for maximum enrollment. Special direction has been given to 10,000 odd CSCs active in the State.
Of the seven crops covered under this insurance scheme only paddy will be registered in GPs, UlBs and in banks. Other commercial crops like maize, arhar, ground nut, turmeric, ginger and cotton will be done at the Block Offices.
Four insurance companies like the Oriental Insurance, Royal Sundaram, Chola Mangalam and Reliance GIC have been entrusted to insure the farmers and crops in the State.
For this, six clusters have been formed, given the geographical locations of the State and two clusters each have been provided to Chola and Royal Sundaram and remaining 2 have been tasked to Reliance and Oriental Insurances.
To achieve the target of enrolling 25 lakh farmers, a special awareness drive has been launched throughout the State by the Agriculture Department.
Odisha since long is known as a disaster affected State. Frequent natural disasters cause innumerable losses to the farming community.
The PMFBY is meant to cover losses caused by drought, flood and local calamities, besides unseasonal rain.
Meanwhile, farmers in different districts have started protesting against the Government for not settling the claims of last year.
That’s why many farmers are reluctant to enrol again as they feel it will be a burden for them if they are registered, complains Rajiv Khamari of Baragarh.
Hundreds of farmers in Bargarh and Nuapara have demonstrated for not getting compensation dues in time.
Finance Secretary Tuhin Kanti Pandey had expressed dissatisfaction over the nonpayment of insurance claims to farmers in time during the State level Bankers Committee (SlBC) meeting held last month. He had even asked the insurance companies to be present in the SlBC meeting.
According to sources, though Rs 750 crore has already been paid by the insurance companies, still they have to pay remaining Rs 750 crore.
Companies like Chola Mangalam, Tata AIG, Agriculture Insurance Company and National Insurance Company were entrusted last year.
The last two companies are Government entities.
To ensure transparency and smooth flowing of compensation funds, the State-owned Odisha State Cooperative Bank has been chosen as nodal agency to route insurance claims.