VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday launched ‘YSR Free Crop Insurance’ scheme and directly credited an overall amount of Rs 1,252 crore into the bank accounts of 9.48 lakh farmers, who had lost their crop in 2019. Speaking on the occasion, he said that the government has taken up the responsibility of supporting farmers during their hard times and therefore had introduced a free crop insurance scheme, without levying any burden of premium on farmers.
Reddy said, “Earlier for availing insurance scheme, farmers had to pay his share, while both State and Central governments would pay an even share of premium amount. However, neither the State nor the Centre used to pursue the insurance claims resulting in the farmers either receiving the maturity amount after a long time or end up losing the insurance. In order to resolve this, the government has taken up the issue to benefit farmers and process the claims in a fast-track mode, besides paying the entire premium on behalf of farmers.
The Chief Minister stated that between 2016 and 2019, the previous government had spent an average of Rs 393 crore per annum towards insurance premium, while the farmers had paid about Rs 290 crore. He further stated that while “only about 20 lakh farmers were enrolled for insurance cover during the Telugu Desam regime, now about 49.80 lakh farmers have been brought under insurance cover, where the State government is paying Rs 971 crore towards premium during 2019-20.
He elaborated “In 2016-17, only 17.79 lakh farmers had insurance cover. In 2017-18, 18.22 lakh farmers and in 2018-19, around 24.83 lakh farmers were brought under it. During our tenure, about 49.80 lakh farmers were brought under insurance cover, under which 45.96 lakh hectares of land was covered with insurance. Following the Nivar Cyclone, crop loss enumeration was done and the details will be displayed at Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs) along with village secretariats and compensation would be paid by December 31.”
The Chief Minister said that the government has been working to safeguard the interests of the farmers and thus established 10,641 RBKs integrating with village secretariats to benefit the farmers. Taking transparency in governance to the next level, the state government brought e-cropping, where all details of the crops will be uploaded to the e-crop database, including the crop loss data. All these details, compensation for the crop loss will be displayed at RBKs for social audit and those missing out from the list can get enrolled at RBK itself. Not just from seeds to marketing but RBKs also addresses crop loss, he said.
“Crop loss during 2020 will be paid in Aprilafter the Planning Department submits the report. The government is also purchasing germinated and decoloured crops at a graded MSP to ensure that no farmer suffers financially.”
Ministers K Kannababu, Chelluboyina Venugopala Krishna, AP Agri Mission Vice-Chairman MVS Nagi Reddy and officials participated in the meeting.
