Farmers can insure crops till August 15

Mumbai: The Maharashtra legislative council witnessed uproar over the crop insurance scheme issue on Monday with the opposition parties demanded the extension of the deadline to August 15. Facing flak from the opposition, agriculture minister Pandurang Fundkar assured the house that farmers would be allowed to apply for crop insurance till August 15.

Although officially, the farmers had two months, starting June 1, to apply for crop insurance, they were unable to do so. Due to the delay in monsoon this year, the farmers were busy resowing their crops and were unable to stand in bank queues.

They had only started queuing up in the last couple of days and Monday being the last day of application, thousands of farmers, mainly from the regions of Marathwada, Vidarbha and North Maharashtra, had missed the deadline. This also resulted in the presence of long lines outside the various bank branches in the rural areas.

The minister also said that if insurance companies didn’t co-operate with the state government, it would help them. He also declared Rs 5 lakh compensation for the family of Ram Potare, the farmer who died on Saturday in Nanded while standing in queue at a bank.

On Monday, Opposition leader Dhananjay Munde raised this issue in the council house, asking the government to postpone the deadline. He said, “Government must help the farmers and give clear instructions to the insurance companies.”

Mr Munde further highlighted that due to the system of online submission of forms, a large number of farmers had to stand in queue at the centres offering this service to apply for the insurance scheme.

He said, “More than a few hundred forms are being filled every day at a single centre. How will the needy farmers avail the insurance scheme at this rate?”

Assuring the house, Mr Fundkar said, “August 15 will be the new deadline for paying the crop insurance. State government will assure guarantee if the insurance companies refuse to get proposal submits.”