Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday stressed the need for States to release Premium Subsidy on time to ensure timely settlement of claims under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY).

At a meeting chaired by her to review the implementation of the scheme through video conferencing, Sitharaman suggested that stringent follow up should be done with States where subsidy is pending specially those which are not implementing the Scheme in Kharif 2020 with a view to ensure payment of all pending claims to farmers at the earliest.

The Finance Minister also highlighted the need to carry out awareness activities to ensure dissemination of information among all farmers in view of Scheme becoming voluntary for all farmers.

The meeting was attended by Debasish Panda, Secretary (Financial Services); Sanjay Agarwal, Secretary DAC&FW; and senior officials from the Department of Financial Services, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW), General Insurance Companies implementing PMFBY and Scheduled Commercial Banks.

Sanjay Agarwal said leveraging technology was one of the main focus areas in revamped PMFBY and the Department was working towards migrating to technology assessment of yield by 2023 and survey would be conducted after Rabi-2020-21 to ascertain the impact of the revamped PMFBY.

A presentation was made by Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & FW wherein the journey of PMFBY since Kharif 2016 as well as challenges encountered and the status of implementation for the current Kharif 2020 crop season, especially after the Revamp of PMFBY, were discussed.

At another video conference, Sitharaman reviewed the implementation of insurance scheme for health workers fighting Covid-19. This scheme was announced as part of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package.

During the meeting, Sitharaman highlighted the importance for a speedy settlement and emphasised the need of the benefit reaching out to the nominees at the earliest.

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