Case against insurance firm for not clearing farmers' claims

A case for cheating has been registered against officials of Bajaj Allianz General Insurance at Beed city in central Maharashtra for not paying farmers' claims under the Prime Minister's crop insurance scheme.

Government officials said the company was supposed to examine claims under the 'Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna' and pay out insurance within two weeks after getting necessary reports from the government, but it was not done in many cases.

The company did not decide as many as 1,34,943 insurance claims for crop damage filed by farmers from the district during the stipulated period, officials alleged.

On Tuesday, Deputy Director of Agriculture Department Dilip Jadhav lodged a complaint against three Pune-based officials of the insurance company under IPC section 409 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) at the Shivaji Nagar Police Station here, they said.

A first information report (FIR) has been registered, they added.

When contacted for comment, Bajaj Allianz said in a statement that "as per the provision of crop insurance scheme, Govt of Maharashtra itself has provided the actual and benchmark crop yield basis on which losses are calculated".

The company "duly settled all eligible claims as per the Maharashtra Govt report," it said, adding that "it cannot pay claims merely because the farmers are covered under the crop insurance scheme unless such farmers actually incur loss as supported by the report of State of Maharashtra".

"If FIR is filed then same is false", the company said.