BJP leader, 2 others booked for farmer’s death
Chandigarh, January 27- Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today urged the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi to consider number of modifications in the recently launched Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) to make it far more farmer friendly and result oriented.
In separate letters to Mr. Modi and Union Agriculture Minister Mr. Radha Mohan Singh, the Chief Minister, while expressing satisaction over newly launched scheme to provide insurance cover and financial support to the farmers in the event of failure of any of the notified crops as a result of natural calamities, pests and diseases, mentioned that the new scheme was a step forward adding that it has greatly improved insurance product as compared to earlier schemes, but still falls short of the farmers’ expectations. He said that the situation in Punjab was totally different than rest of the country. He said that 98% of cultivated area in Punjab was under assured irrigation and the state has faced natural calamities but tried to save and manage its crops with huge investments and costs. Mr. Badal said that the state has never notified a calamity year in the past 15 years.
Further, the Chief Minister said that variation in yield of major crops since 2000-01 has been less than 5% in case of Paddy, no decline in Wheat and Maize and up to 23% in case of Cotton. He said that as such an indemnity level of 90% for cereal crops would be completely unsuitable for Punjab. Mr. Badal said that furthermore variation in yield would be worked out on the basis of four crop cutting experiments in the notified villages and in situations where only a part of the village was affected, variation was unlikely to be anywhere close to threshold limit as it would be further restricted and based on average yield of last seven years excluding two years of declared calamity, if any.
The Chief Minister advocated higher level of indemnity for Punjab because of its special and different position in Agriculture. He said that even if it was kept at 90%, it should be based on last year’s yield of the insured and affected farmers. “Such a step will help to cover more farmers on voluntary basis, minimizing State’s contribution in providing calamity relief which otherwise is likely to continue unabated” added Mr. Badal.
Dwelling on another issue, the Chief Minister said that the Scheme provides for insurance cover for losses suffered due to drought but, in Punjab, the state has never declared drought. Rather, he said that Punjabi farmers and the state Government face and manage it by pumping in individual and State resources, without allowing the crops to die and farmers to suffer. Mr. Badal said that in case of drought like situation as a result of deficit rains, the cost of cultivation of farmer increases due to increase in cost of irrigation and labor etc. but the new insurance scheme does not provide for compensation for such increases and situations.
The Chief Minister said that farmers have to spend more on diesel consumption and even on deepening of tube-wells due to decline in ground water level as result of drought like conditions. He said that even the state Government also has to spend more on purchase and supply of electricity to farmers to ensure adequate irrigation in such conditions adding that past estimates indicate that farmers invested about Rs 800 crore on deepening and re-boring of tube-wells during Kharif 2014, whereas the State had to procure additional electricity of Rs 1400 crore to save the paddy crop in that season. “Further the scheme also does not provide for loss due to unseasonal rains in Rabi crops. I feel that such increased costs and losses should be covered” added Mr. Badal.
The Chief Minister said that post harvest losses covered in the scheme were for crops kept in “cut and spread” condition in the field whereas the harvesting of cereal crop in the State was fully mechanized and the crop was immediately taken to market but losses due to natural calamities during marketing in the Mandis were not covered. He said that such losses should also be covered if the crop remains unsold in the mandi at the peril of farmers.
The Chief Minister further said that undoubtedly the rates of premium for farmers have been reduced under the new scheme, but it was felt that burden of premium should be fully borne by the Central and State Governments. He said that given present agrarian crisis and financial stress on farmers, insurance cover should be provided to them as a measure to save them from natural calamities and climate variability. It may be appropriate to cap the farmers’ contribution to the premium at Rs. 100/- an acre to begin with, and to share the balance cost of insurance in the ratio of 60:40 between Government of india and the State Government as done in most other schemes of agriculture development, added Mr. Badal.
