After a series of struggles by the farmers, the governments and National Agriculture Insurance Company have released Rs. 296.22 crore towards crop insurance for the year 2013-14, the highest amount in the State even as the district administration commenced disbursal of the amount to the farmers.
The disbursal commenced on Thursday and the more than one lakh farmers in all 36 ‘firkas,’ barring Rameswaram, where paddy was not cultivated and Ramanathapuram, where there was no complaint of yield loss, would be paid the amount in the next 30 days, Collector K. Nanthakumar announced at the farmers’ grievance day meeting here on Friday.
To ensure absolute transparency and avoid irregularities in the payment, flex boards – giving details of the farmers, the credit availed by them and amount due to them – were being displayed in front of all the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Credit Societies (PACCS) and the farmers would be paid the amount through cheques, he said.
On the first day, 5,000 farmers were paid a total amount of about Rs. 18 crore, the Collector said and requested the farmers not to crowd the 29 branches of the Central cooperative banks to encash the cheques. They could visit the banks between 2p.m. to 6 p.m. for encashing the cheques, a couple of days after receiving them, he added. The beneficiary farmers should submit two photographs. While one photo would be affixed in the ledger against their name, the other one would be affixed on the backside of the cheque leaf with their signatures, the Collector said.
Joint Registrar, Deputy Registrars and Personal Assistant to Collector (Agriculture) would form a surveillance team and visit the PACCS to prevent any irregularity in the disbursement of the insurance amount, official sources said. The farmers were free to lodge complaints with the authorities if they faced any difficulty, they said.
The beneficiary farmers included about 86,000 non-loanee farmers and about 15,000 loanee farmers, the sources said. The loanee and other farmers who had directly paid the premium in the nationalised banks could get the cheques from the respective banks, they added.
