'Complete settlement of entire admissible claims for preventive sowing latest by Dec 15'
Kolkata: The state Agriculture department has asked Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd (AICI) to complete the settlement of entire admissible claims for preventive sowing latest by December 15.
For the Kharif season 2022, Rs 79.78 crore claim amount is still pending in respect of preventive sowing as on December 7.
"We have already started the process of disbursement of claims and we will be able to do the needful by December 15," a senior official of the Kolkata office of AICIL said.
Farmers from five districts namely- Bankura, Birbhum,Murshidabad, West Burdwan and Purulia are receiving claims for preventive sowing. Among the 2.74 lakh beneficiaries estimated over 1.71 lakh have already received their settlement claim. Out of the estimated claim amount of Rs 203.79 crore, Rs 124 crore have been disbursed till December 7.
The dearth of rainfall in these districts has affected sowing of crops.
Onkar Singh Meena, Principal Secretary of state Agriculture department has asked the district magistrates to escalate to the District Coordinator of AICIL in case of any local grievances.
He has further stated that the final claim settlement for yield loss due to drought, based on an actual assessment of yield reduction will be done next and will be completed by end of January. December 31, 2022 is cut off for harvesting of Kharif.
Over 61 lakh applications of Bangla Shasya Bima have been received by AICIL regional office in Kolkata this year which has its operational jurisdiction of not only Bengal but Tripura and Sikkim too.
AICIL provides claim in three stages- preventive claim is given to compensate for the loss incurred after sowing of crop or failure to transplant crop due to adverse weather conditions, the mid-season claim is provided against damage mid-way due to natural calamities and thirdly during season-end for damage while harvesting.
According to sources in the Agriculture department, the overall picture of transplantation is not so bad this year with 90 per cent of the target being achieved. The coverage of Kharif paddy has spread across 38.52 lakh hectares of land, the target being 42.81 lakh hectares. During the corresponding period last year, the growth was on 42.16 lakh hectares.
The insurance is provided based on remote sensing satellite data acquisition technology of the National Remote Sensing Centre of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) introduced during the 2020 Kharif season. A joint inspection is carried out by officials of Agriculture department and AIC after the satellite imaging and accordingly the insurance amount is disbursed. The crop insurance scheme is free for the farmers as the state government pays the entire premium.
