After the district administration started distributing crop insurance to farmers for the crop loss suffered in the year 2016-17, farmers from at least three villages in Mudukulathur block thronged the Collectorate here on Monday and complained non receipt of the insurance amount.
Led by S. Mohamed Rafiq, president of the Melasirupodur Primary Agriculture Cooperative Credit Society (PACCS), farmers from the village and nearby villages of Kozhundurai and Veppankulam presented petitions to Collector S. Natarajan, urging him to secure them the insurance amount.
They cultivated paddy and suffered 100% crop loss after the failure of the north east monsoon but their names did not figure in the list of names of farmers, released by the district administration eligible for crop insurance.
Farmers who had lost crops, next to their fields have received the amount but they have been left out, the farmers complained.
Farmers from three villages from Nainarkoil block also presented petitions to the Collector raising similar issue, a few days ago.
A total of 1,17,542 farmers had insured their crops in the district under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana for the year 2016-17 after they raised crops in 1.13 lakh hectares.
Majority of the farmers had raised paddy, while others raised chilli and other horticulture crops.
The Agriculture Insurance Company of India Limited had released ₹ 355.28 crore towards first instalment and expected to release the balance of about ₹ 200 crore in the second instalment. This district received lion’s share of crop insurance after Tiruvarur.
Meanwhile, Mr. Natarajan said that farmers in all the affected villages would be paid the insurance amount.
Steps on
He had discussed the issue with insurance company representative at a special district-level monitoring committee meeting here on August 4 and was taking steps to ensure that all affected farmers received the compensation, he said.
Till Monday, the district administration has distributed ₹ 269.87 crore to 72,837 farmers through cooperative banks.
The compensation was directly credited into the bank accounts of the farmers, Mr. Natarajan said.