Hyderabad: Expressing displeasure over the inordinate delay in filing an explanation affidavit in the PIL filed against the state government for not releasing its share of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, which facilitates crop insurance to farmers, the Telangana High Court on Tuesday cautioned the principal secretary of agriculture department that he should appear before it, if the affidavit was not filed within four weeks.
“This is the last chance to file the affidavit, else, the principal secretary of agriculture shall appear before us on the next date of hearing,” a division bench comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice A. Rajashekar Reddy said.
The bench was dealing with a PIL filed by Payal Shanker from Adilabad, seeking a direction to the Telangana government to pay crop insurance amount immediately. He informed the court that though the Telangana government had issued a GO. No. 500 dated 23-11-2019 for the purpose of paying of its share of the crop insurance for the period of 2018-2019 kharif and rabi, but till today, it had not released any amount and farmers who lost their crops due to incessant rains during these time period were facing problems in getting insurance amount for their damaged crops.
Bollu Rachana Reddy, counsel for the petitioners, brought to the notice of the court that the crop insurance amount had to be shared 50 per cent each by the Central government and the state government. The Central government had already submitted its willingness to pay and the said amount under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and it had already earmarked this amount in the advanced fund, whereas the state was yet to act on this, she said.
She also drew the attention of the court that the state was not willing to provide crop insurance to farmers for the years 2020 and 2021.
