Penal action must be initiated against officials of insurance firms that bungled in disbursing crop insurance relief to the affected farmers in time, according to P.R. Pandian, Coordinator, Federation of Farmers’ Associations of Tamil Nadu.
Addressing the media here on Wednesday, Mr. Pandian alleged that much against the wishes of the delta ryots, the Central and State governments brought in ICICI and New India Assurance along with the existing Agricultural Insurance Company of India for undertaking crop insurance.
But the New India Assurance Company operating in the core agricultural region of delta failed to honour the commitment given to thousands of farmers. The officials were only offering promises but little action was being taken to solve the outstanding issues and pave the way for disbursing crop insurance to the real beneficiaries, Mr. Pandian said.
He also claimed that more than ₹10 lakh remitted by the farmers as premium amount had not been accounted for by insurance form officials and that had put the farmers in deep trouble for no fault of theirs. The officials responsible for the fiasco must be held accountable.
A complaint had been preferred to the police, besides reverting the crop insurance job back to the Agricultural Insurance Company of India as desired by most of the farmers, Mr. Pandian said.
There must be a regional office for the crop insurance company in Thanjavur, he added.
