District Collector K Nanthakumar has announced that the State government has released its share and the disbursement of crop insurance to more than one lakh farmers in the district for the season 2013-14 would start in the first week of May.
The Collector made the much-awaited announcement at the farmers’ grievance redressal meeting here on Friday after the farmers raised the issue and wanted to know whether they would be paid the crop insurance or not. Pacifying the farmers who were upset over the delay in payment, the Collector said the State government had issued a Government Order recently, releasing its share of Rs 196 crore and after the Centre released its share, the National Agriculture Insurance Company would announce the percentage of compensation to the farmers.
The Insurance Company is expected to complete the process of working out firka-wise percentage of compensation by the month end and the disbursement of insurance amount would begin by May 4 or during the first week of May.
In the last meeting, the Collector had said that the district administration had sent a report, seeking a total compensation of Rs. 240 crore for the farmers in the district, stating that they suffered almost total loss due to failure of both south west and north east monsoons during 2013-14.
Kanagaraj, Personal Assistant to Collector (Agriculture) said 14,420 loanee farmers had paid a total premium of Rs. 54 lakh and the 85,929 non-loanee farmers, Rs. 2.72 crore.
The district administration would disburse the crop insurance to the farmers through the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Credit Societies (PACCS). As demanded by the farmers, the insurance amount would be paid through cheques, he said.
The insurance company is expected to complete process of working out firka-wise percentage of compensation by month-end
