Below the line: Small compensation

You may have seen farmers complaining that they got a pittance as payout for the crop damage they suffered. Now, the government has admitted that may be true, at least for some farmers. According to a written reply given by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in the Rajya Sabha, nearly 7.6 lakh farmers enrolled in PM Fasal Bima Yojana received ₹1-100 as claim payout in the last three years. The Minister was answering a question raised by MPs Sukhram Singh Yadav and Vishambar Prasad Nishad.

Citing the formula used by the insurance firms to calculate the compensation, Tomar said since the inception of the scheme in 2016, a claim amount of ₹302.33 lakh was distributed among 7,58,109 farmers, each getting on average less than ₹40.

Rahul Gandhi does not need an introduction in Indian politics, but the Gandhi family scion, and till more recently the Congress chief, seems to be suffering from an identity crisis.

He has been criticising the Narendra Modi government’s handling of the economy and the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). While addressing the media outside Parliament on the same, Rahul got confused about his true designation — is he simply an Opposition leader or the Leader of Opposition (LOP) in the Lok Sabha?

Rahul’s recent comments raised eyebrows as he, in what appears to be a gaffe, still refers to himself as the LOP. This plays to the age-old narrative that the Gandhi family is the real power, and all other posts are mere figure heads. Oh what harm can a mere designation do!

Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari was a potent cocktail of belligerence and patience while addressing the second edition of the BusinessLine Transporters’ Meet.

In response to concerns about bribery and forced collections by toll operators, Gadkari said that transporters should begin by not encouraging such behaviour. If the transporters do not indulge in overloading, and are primarily compliant with the law, then there would be no need for bribes. The government representatives have become used to being paid bribes and it is difficult to wean them off this habit, he said.

Gadkari insisted that the transporters should approach investigative agencies instead of bribing their way out of tricky situations. He also flagged the Tamil Nadu administration for bribery culture, but stopped short of saying much, noting that it was a public forum he was addressing.

There is no doubt that the RBI has gone the extra mile in dousing the YES Bank fire. So much so, that it has written to chief secretaries of States, asking their departments not to withdraw deposits from private sector banks and that any apprehensions about the safety of deposits are “highly misplaced”. The Central bank’s move, it is reckoned, followed the Maharashtra government’s advisory to its departments to not keep money in private sector banks.

However, this has not gone well with a few purist bankers, who in private felt that the RBI should not be batting only for private sector banks. Such an approach lowers the prestige of the RBI as a regulator, they opined.

At the same time, there are some who support the move, contending this was warranted in the interest of stability of the financial system in general, and the banking system in particular. The jury’s still out.

Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra’s encounter with Republic TV founder Arnab Goswami on board an Indigo flight refuses to fade away. On Wednesday, the All India Trinamool Congress’ MP Santanu Sen asked Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep Puri, in a written question in the Rajya Sabha, whether the flying ban imposed by four airlines on Kamra was a violation of Unruly Passenger Rules 2017.

Puri replied that Indigo has informed the DGCA it has put Kamra in the no-fly list for indulging in Level 1 unruly behaviour. After hearing a writ petition filed (by Kamra’s counsel) against the ban (disposed of on February 27), the Delhi High Court directed DGCA to redress the representation and grievance toward the airlines as per extant regulatory provisions within eight weeks, the reply added.

Our Delhi Bureau