Comments
Even as the kharif season sowings are coming to a close, farmers in Andhra Pradesh are busy enrolling for the crop insurance scheme, which is being promoted by the State.
Andhra Pradesh, which is among the few States that have chosen to have their own crop insurance schemes, is in the process of establishing AP General Insurance Company (APGIC) to run the scheme.
“The farmers have been asked to enroll for the scheme by September 5 by paying a nominal premium fee of ₹1. But we don’t have the detailed guidelines though the deadline is fast approaching,” Keshava Rao, Secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangham, told BusinessLine .
The State had begun implementing its own scheme from the rabi season. “We have not come out with a fresh notification for the scheme applicable for the kharif. But it is going to be on the same lines as that of the rabi one,” said a senior government official.
The State government has reportedly received the IRDA (Insurance Regulatory Development Authority) nod to form the insurance company.
Quick claim settlement
“We have asked the government to go with the public general insurance companies instead of assigning the job to private companies. We have also asked the State government to set up offices in districts as well to make it easier for farmers to get their claims processed quickly,” said Keshava Rao.
The State government had authorised the Director of Insurance, Andhra Pradesh, to take up further steps in connection with the establishment of proposed APGIC.
The authorised share capital of the company is pegged at ₹101 crore divided into 10.10 crore equity shares of ₹10 each.
Arguing in favour of the State establishing its own insurance scheme, a government official pointed out that one-third of the kharif area in 2019 was not covered by any insurance. “We would like to saturate (cover all farmers) with our scheme,” he said.
The government made it mandatory for farmers to register themselves on e-Karshak app (real-time crop registration window) in order to be eligible for the scheme. The Department of Agriculture will be the nodal agency for the implementation of the scheme.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.