A fortnight after the Agriculture Insurance Company of India Limited released ₹ 305 crore towards first instalment of crop insurance for 2016-17, relief could not be disbursed to farmers as officials could not fix the quantum of compensation per acre.
After sanctioning ₹ 355.28 crore in the first instalment, the Agriculture Insurance Company of India Limited had released a sum of ₹ 305 crore and the same has been credited into the Ramanathapuram Central Cooperative Bank two weeks ago.
The amount, however, could not be credited into the bank accounts of farmers who had insured their crops as officials awaited the release of the balance amount of first instalment and second instalment of ₹ 202.72 crore.
Only after the receipt of the total amount, they would be able to disburse the amount after calculating the compensation per acre per farmer, officials said. Otherwise it would be duplication of work for the bank officials, they said adding the banks were also validating the account numbers of the farmers.
The district administration had already sent the bank account details of all the 1,17,542 farmers, who had insured their crops under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana for 2016-17, when the district witnessed 100% crop loss due to failure of north east monsoon. The farmer had raised crops in 1,12,981 hectares and they included 10,044 farmers who had cultivated chilli and other horticulture crops in 8,220 hectares of land, he said.
Chairing the district-level monitoring committee meeting recently, Collector S. Natarajan instructed the Agriculture department and bank officials to ensure that the insurance amount was credited into the bank accounts of farmers without hassles.
He said in the first instalment, the insurance company has sanctioned ₹ 1.65 crore for loanee farmers and ₹ 353.63 crore for non-loanee farmers. The second instalment was expected to be received in another 20 days, he added.
The meeting was attended by Lakshmanan, Assistant Manger of the insurance company and Lead bank manager Suresh Babu among others.
