HC directive to Centre on crop insurance scheme

The Madras High Court today directed the central government to file an affidavit stating as to when the proposed new crop insurance scheme for farmers will get finality.
A bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T S Sivagnanam, directed Assistant Solicitor General Su. Srinivasan to file an affidavit stating when the central government expected the consultative process of providing relevant scheme for crop insurance would gets it finality as it was going on for the last three years.
The bench was hearing a PIL by former DMK MLA Appavu who sought a direction to the authorities to make the crop insurance scheme available to all agriculturists, covering all crops in Tamil Nadu.

As per the existing scheme, farmers in notified areas alone, that too those who cultivate the notified crops alone, were eligible to become a beneficiary in case of loss.
"Because of its faulty conception, the scheme is not working well... The number of beneficiaries had been witnessing a steady fall since 2008-09 when 5.5 lakh farmers benefited," he said.
In 2009-10, the number fell to 1.51 lakh and in 2010-11 it came down to just 36,000. In 2011-12 it was 9700.

As per the above scheme, fifty per cent of insurance premium was paid by farmers, while the rest was given by the government. In case of compensation for losses, it is shared equally by state and central governments.

The petitioner, citing statistics, said that in the 15-year period between 1995 and 2010, nearly 2.57 lakh farmers had committed suicide and in 2001 alone 16,415 farmers killed themselves across the country.
The PIL said the role of crop insurance was critical and wanted the government to spread the scheme in such a way as to cover all farmers cultivating all crops all across the country.