Searching for insurance data

Ranchi, April 24: Over 7 lakh farmers have been denied the benefits of the ambitious crop insurance scheme as the state government is yet to hand over compensation packages to those who insured their crops in 2006-07.

While the state statistical directorate failed to submit yield data for the 2007 kharif crop, the state government’s dithering has come in the way of Agriculture Insurance Company of India releasing compensation packages for the 2006 rabi crop.

“The state statistical directorate was supposed to provide a block-wise yield data by March 31 this year for the 2007 kharif season,” said a senior official of the insurance company, which has an office here.

“Based on the yield/crop loss data we calculate the Centre’s and state’s share of the compensation. But the directorate failed to give us the data before the deadline. We have data only for 195 of the 212 blocks covered under the scheme,” he added.

S.N. Basu, the regional manager of the company in the city, confirmed the state unit was yet to receive claim details from the state co-operative department, the nodal agency for implementing the insurance scheme.

He said the issue would be raised during the April 29 meeting of the state-level consultative committee for crop insurance. A joint secretary and a deputy general manager rank official from the Union agriculture ministry were expected to attend the meeting to be chaired by the secretary, state co-operative department.

Sources in the state co-operative department revealed that a record 7 lakh farmers opted for crop insurance in 2007 kharif season — primarily due to an over-dependency on the monsoon and the state’s failure to provide extensive irrigation facilities.

In Jharkhand, less then 10 per cent of agricultural land was covered under irrigation.

As for the rabi crop, over 61,000 farmers opted for insurance in the 2006-07 season.

The kharif season extended from April (sowing) to the December (harvesting). For farmers, therefore, the compensation packages — if disbursed in time — would have come in handy during the ongoing sowing season.

The blame game has already begun. Y.P. Singh, joint secretary in the co-operative department, said the statistical directorate was responsible for the mess. But those in the directorate blamed block officials for the data supply delay.