Settle claims of 1,052 farmers in Jodhpur: HC to Agriculture Insurance Company of India

Jodhpur: The high court has directed the Agriculture Insurance Company of India to disburse pending claims to 1,052 farmers of 5 villages of Satlan gram panchayat in Luni of Jodhpur. The court said poor farmers, anguishing years together for payment of insurance, cannot be denied the benefit due to any pending issue between the company, the state government and the bank.

A division bench comprising chief justice Indrajit Mahanty and justice Vijay Bishnoi directed the insurance company to release the payment within 4 weeks while hearing a petition by the farmers with a prayer of direction to the company to release the claim amount due for the years 2016 and 2017. According to the petitioners’ counsel Moti Singh Rajpurohit, the farmers had obtained insurance of their crop under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Beema Yojna and had paid their premium through Kissan Credit Cards and Gram Sahkari Sewa Samiti (GSSS) by way of auto debit.

“But then, the insurance company did not determine claims to these farmers for the year 2016 and 2017. Then the GSSS sent communication to the Jodhpur Central Cooperative Bank intimating about the matter”, said Rajpurohit. But when GSSS did not receive any response from the bank, the farmers moved high court in 2019 through the sarpanch.

“On this petition, the court directed the insurance company in February to determine the total amount of claim due to the farmers. As per the determination, total amount of claim for the year was Rs 81 lakh”, said Rajpurohit, adding that the same for the year 2017 was yet to be determined by as an approximation it was Rs 91 lakh.

On Monday, the bench was told by the company that they were not yet in receipt of the subsidy from the state government as well as the premium from the cooperative bank. On this argument, the bench stated that all the respondents comprising the state government, insurance company and the bank should settle the matter among themselves and poor farmers should not suffer due to the pending issue between these 3 parties.

Source: The Times of India

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