Guj: Cong alleges scam in settling crop loss insurance claims

Opposition Congress on Tuesday alleged a "multi-crore crop insurance scam" under the watch of the BJP government in Gujarat, a charge denied by the ruling party.

Congress leaders told a press conference here that farmers in at least two villages in Junagadh district were paid the crop loss claims that were 80 to 90 per cent less that what they were entitled to as per the guidelines formulated under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Vima Yojana.

The leaders said they are in possession of original copies of the documents showing crop insurance calculations, "which prove that the farmers were paid only a fraction when they actually deserved to be paid 90 per cent of the amount of claims".

They said the documents for the last financial year were processed at the local level in Amargadh and Devgadh villages in Mendarda taluka in Junagadh district.

"Farmers in the two villages were paid only 1.45 per cent and 8.19 per cent of the total claim amount, respectively, as against 91.54 per cent and 90.43 per cent (of the claim amount) they were entitled to (to be paid by crop insurance companies).

"If we take into account the scam in settling the crop insurance claims in Gujarat since the last five years, then it will come out as the biggest such scam in the history of the state," state Congress president Amit Chavda alleged.

He said even farmers have realised that it was a "multi-crore scam" being perpetuated by crop insurance companies.

"The BJP government chose to remain silent even when farmers, who had suffered crop loss to a great extent, fought hard to receive their rightful payment," Chavda said.

Claiming that the two villages are just representative samples, he alleged that all the 18,000 villages in Gujarat were affected by the scam.

Chavda demanded that the state government provide the figures regarding the crop insurance calculation for all the villages.

Gujarat Kisan Congress president Pal Ambaliya said the government was deliberately hiding the documents pertaining to the crop insurance claims.

"Despite the Opposition party demanding these documents in the Legislative Assembly and through RTI, the government refused to reveal the details on one pretext or the other," he alleged.

Ambaliya alleged that "some people in government are fudging data regarding the crop insurance claims in a bid to divert crores of rupees".

Congress MLA Rutvik Makwana also raised similar allegations.

He demanded that farmers demand for crop insurance claim documents at the village level.

State BJP president Jitu Vaghani dismissed the "preposterous" claims of the Congress.

"The Congress does not even understand the process of calculating crop insurance claims, but it is still making such allegations. A scam had happened under the erstwhile Congress government at the Centre when many people went to jails. The BJP is not hiding anything," he told reporters.

Earlier, scores of BJP leaders, including party MPs and even chief minister Vijay Rupani, had accused crop insurance companies of short-changing farmers in settling their crop insurance claims.