Karnataka Govt holds 2019 flood insurance pending of 2.63 lakh farmers

Over a year has passed that Karnataka had the disastrous floods of 2019, but, farmers in the state are still waiting to receive the insurance cover for the crop loss that was incident during the year under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna.

As per the government data and reports, for the losses that happened in 2019 floods,  a total of 4.93 lakh farmers had the eligibility to receive the insurance claims for the crop loss. Alongside, more than 61,000 claims for the year 2016-2017 and the year 2018-2019 which is estimated to be Rs. 11.07 crores are still left to be settled at several levels of government.

The farmer organizations are blaming the government of utilizing the funds reinstated for insurance claims, further aggravating the distress caused by the floods. Though the authorities have confirmed on disbursing the claims at the earliest. According to the sources, one of the main reasons for the delay is tallying crop survey data with ‘Samrakshane’ which is a crop insurance portal representing the state government.

For the Khariff crop losses incurred in 2019, the government estimated the amount for claims to be Rs. 524.62 crore, from which the government has cleared up Rs. 221.57 crore and Rs. 303.04 crore is still pending to be settled.

The farmers, in several instances, had sown for a different crop, so it caused a lot of complications when the crop survey took place. The sources revealed the government had asked for an exemption from insurance companies for such cases, along with cases which were having issues of mixed cropping, inter-cropping and others.

Viresh Sobaradhmath, representing the Karnataka Rait Sena stated that they had petitioned district administration for ensuring timely release of insurance claims. He said, “Many farmers in the Krishna basin, who suffered losses during floods last year are yet to receive the insurance cover under the scheme.” He blamed the state government for exhausting the funds of insurance claims, which led to the delay. BY Srinivas, the director of Agriculture Department assured about the release of the claims in several stages. He further iterated on the technical issues which invoked the delay.