Malda raises target for crop insurance

Malda: The Malda district administration has raised the target of registering farmers under the ‘Bangla Shasya Bima Yojana’ (crop insurance) by 40,000 this Rabi season with an aim to bring more farmers in the ambit of insurance for their crops.

Nitin Singhania, District Magistrate Malda, said: “Last year, almost 3 lakh 60 thousand farmers were enrolled under

the scheme.

This year, we raised it to 4 lakh so that more farmers can be brought under the safety of insurance for their precious crops. We are making a wide publicity of this and would request the farmers to register themselves as soon as they can.”

To make a wide campaign of the facilities under the scheme, folk artistes are engaged to draw attention of the beneficiaries through their performance. Further, two tableaus were flagged off on Thursday at the Collectorate Building, district headquarters, for the two sub-divisions, Sadar and Chanchal, of Malda to attract the farmers to the scheme and register themselves spontaneously. Camps for the purpose have been set up throughout

the district.

Dibanath Majumder, deputy director of district Agriculture department, said: “The farmers will get insurance based on the damage to their crop. If they cannot sow the seeds, there is insurance, if a flood occurs, satellite images will be compared to our reports and the amount of insurance will be finalised.

The amount will vary as per the condition and the damage done. The insurance is totally free of cost and the farmers need to bring land papers, Aadhaar and bank details to get them registered.”