BHUBANESWAR: Even as Bargarh farmers are crying foul over rejection of claims for crop insurance by a private insurance company, the State government on Wednesday informed the Assembly that claims amounting to Rs 374.2 crore are pending for disbursal.
Replying to a question of BJP MLA Mohan Majhi, Cooperation Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak said Rs 723.81 crore out of the total estimated crop insurance claim Rs 1363.26 crore for 2021 kharif season have been released and Rs 639.46 crore is pending for disbursal.
Over 20.33 lakh applicants will benefit after disbursement of the crop insurance claims. He said the insurance companies have been instructed to settle the claims of eligible farmers in identified gram panchayats.
Of the highest estimated claims of Rs 421.13 crore in Bargarh district, the Minister said crop insurance claims amounting Rs 46.93 crore have been released under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). Around 84,775 applicants has benefited.
The second highest claim amounting Rs 164 crore is pending in Balangir district followed by Sambalpur with Rs 47 crore. Giving year-wise break up, the Minister said over 39.47 lakh out of 49.62 lakh applications were found ineligible in 2019-20 while over 81.17 lakh out of 97.6 lakh application enrolled claiming crop insurance in 2020-21 got rejected.
Surprisingly, all the 1,72,129 applications of Angul district were found ineligible for 2019-20 while only one out of 4,12,892 applications received crop insurance claims.Similarly, all applications enroled under PMBFY for 2020-21 in Boudh, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nuapada and Sonepur were found ineligible by the crop insurance companies.
The Minister said that technical process to integrate the PMFBY portal with Krushak Odisha Portal is underway and talks are on with the Central government for preparing a detailed guideline for accessing crop damage through satellite imagery. These innovative steps will give an accurate count of the crop damage due to calamities and number of farmers eligible to get crop insurance.