A total of 58.82 hectares of land was insured with a total of Rs 29.21 crore premium paid. Since 2016, the state has recorded the payment of insurance premiums of Rs 5,521 crore under the scheme, of which the share of farmers has been Rs 992 crore. Farmers have received compensation of Rs 4,781 crore. As many as 6,011 horticulture farmers in the state have been found ineligible for availing a government crop insurance scheme following discrepancies in the data provided by them. The discrepancies were found after the central government ordered the re-verification of the farmers who have insured their rabi crops.
Horticulture crops are insured under the Restructured Weather-Based Crop Insurance Scheme. Under the scheme, farmers pay 5 per cent of the insurance premium while the remaining being equally shared by the state and the central government.
The scheme provides insurance for crops like bananas, pomegranates, grapes and mangoes. It helps the farmers to cover the losses at the time of drastic weather changes like untimely rains, extreme temperatures and high wind velocity.
However, a Right to Information (RTI) plea in November 2022 unearthed the “insurance fraud” where compensation was allegedly claimed for losses on imaginary vineyards, banana plantations, pomegranate and sweet lime orchards.
The Indian Express had also reported about the alleged scam.
Following the RTI, the Centre ordered a physical verification or ‘ground-truthing’ of all crops registered under the RWBCIS scheme and action against farmers who have fraudulently insured their crops.
The survey (accessed by The Indian Express) claims Jalna reporting the highest number of farmers (2,174) availing the scheme and of them, 1,769 farmers insuring the pomegranate crops with discrepancies. Solapur registered 1,995 farmers with incorrect data.
A total of 58.82 hectares of land was insured with a total of Rs 29.21 crore premium paid. Since 2016, the state has recorded the payment of insurance premiums of Rs 5,521 crore under the scheme, of which the share of farmers has been Rs 992 crore. Farmers have received compensation of Rs 4,781 crore.