Indian farmers are still awaiting their insurance claims from the 2016 kharif season. The delay in settling the claims was mainly because the state governments did not clear their pending premium dues or did not submit data on when the crops were harvested, the Business Standard reported.
Without this data, insurance firms cannot make the payments to the farmers, who are now faced with a different hurdle altogether in Gujarat and West Bengal – flood-ravaged farms. Farmers had till July 31 to file their insurance claims for the 2017 kharif season under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, though some states such as Maharashtra have asked for the deadline to be extended.
According to the provisional data on farmers’ insurance claims that have been settled, West Bengal, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Telangana have the worst record in the 2016 kharif season. The Centre submitted the data available as of July 19 in the Rajya Sabha.
As per the prime minister’s insurance scheme for farmers, companies have to settle their claims within three weeks from when the the state government submits data on their yield and premium subsidies.
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