Lok Sabha Question No. 269 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-02-04
Subject: Irregularities in PMFBY
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Shri Narayan Tatu Rane, Shri Sanjay Haribhau Jadhav, Shri Omprakash Bhupalsinh Alias Pavan Rajenimbalkar

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 269

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 4 TH  FEBRUARY, 2025

## IRREGULARITIES IN PMFBY

269. SHRI OMPRAKASH BHUPALSINH ALIAS PAVAN RAJENIMBALKAR: SHRI NARAYAN TATU RANE: SHRI SANJAY HARIBHAU JADHAV: Will  the  Minister  of  AGRICULTURE  AND  FARMERS WELFARE कृ ͪष एवं ͩकसान कãयाण मंğी be pleased to state: (a) the current status of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana in the country; (b) whether it is a fact that irregularities have been committed in its implementation and if so, whether the Government has conducted any investigation in this regard; (c) whether the Government is providing the farmers the claim amount on time under Fasal Bima Yojana and if so, the  steps taken by  the Government  to identify  the  farmers who are  being provided the said amount; (d) whether the Government has conducted any investigation in this regard and if so, the kind of investigation being conducted, against the accused; (e) whether it is true that the amount to be received under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana has  been  received  by  someone  other  than  the  entitled  person  and  if  so,  whether  any investigation has been conducted in this regard and if so, the action taken against the persons found guilty and the details of the appropriate action to provide the funds to the entitled person; and

(f) the details of the steps taken by the Government to bring transparency in the scheme?

## ANSWER

THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ ͪष एवं ͩकसान कãयाण राÏय मंğी (SHRI RAMNATH THAKUR)

- (a): The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) introduced in the country from Kharif 2016  season  is  voluntary  for  States  as  well  as  farmers.    At  present,  23  States  and  Union Territories are implementing the scheme.  Since inception of the scheme till 2023-24 season, 63.19 crore farmer applications over an area of 42.21 crore hectare for a sum insured of Rs. 17,29,395 crore has been insured under the scheme.   As on date, total claims of Rs.1,75,276 crore have been paid against the farmers premium of Rs. 32,475 crore during this period.

(b) to (f): All  the  major  work  like  selection  of  insurance  model,  selection  of  Insurance Companies through transparent bidding process, enrollment of farmers, assessment of crop yield/crop loss for calculation of admissible claims are being performed by the concerned State Government  or  Joint  Committee  of  State  Government  officials  and  concerned  insurance company.  The  roles  and  responsibilities  of  each  stakeholder  are  defined  in  the  Operational Guidelines of the scheme for the proper execution of the scheme.

Majority of the claims are settled  within the stipulated timelines under the Operational Guidelines of the scheme by the insurance companies.    However, during the implementation of PMFBY, some complaints against insurance companies about non-payment and/or delayed payment of claims; under payment of claims on account of incorrect/delayed submission  of insurance proposals by banks; discrepancy in yield data & consequent disputes between State Government and insurance companies,  delay in providing State Government share of funds, non-deployment of sufficient personnel by insurance companies etc.,  were received in the past which were suitably addressed as per provisions of the scheme.

Since the scheme is implemented by the State Government, therefore, in order to resolve the  grievances/complaints  including  those  related  to  claims  of  insured  farmers,  provision  of Stratified Grievance Redressal Mechanism viz. District Level Grievance Redressal Committee (DGRC), State Level Grievance Redressal Committee (SGRC) has been made in the Revised Operational  Guidelines  of  the  Scheme.        These  committees  have  been  given  the  detailed mandate as outlined in the Operational Guidelines for hearing the complaints/ grievances   and to dispose them as per the stipulated procedure.

To further improve the grievance redressal mechanism, Krishi Rakshak Portal and Helpline (KRPH) has been developed.  A single Pan-India toll free number 14447 has been deployed and linked to the insurance companies database, where farmers can raise their grievances/issues.  Timelines to resolve these grievances/issues has also been fixed.  Till date 95.03  lakh calls have been received on KRPH.  Out of these 29.35 lakh issues related e-tickets were generated and forwarded for action to the insurance companies.  Rest of the issues were either informatory or seeking advisory.  Out of the 29.35 lakh issue related E-tickets generated, 29.12  lakh  (99%)  have  been  resolved.    This  has  helped  the  Central  Govt.  and  State Governments to monitor the grievances of stakeholders at a unified platform.

Government has taken various steps to strengthen implementation of this scheme and bring transparency :

-  Government has undertaken development of National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) as a single  source  of  data  ensuring  subsidy  payment,  co-ordination,  transparency, dissemination of information and delivery of services including direct online enrollment of farmers, uploading/obtaining individual insured famer's details for better monitoring and to ensure transfer of claim amount electronically to the individual farmer's Bank Account.
-  In  order  to  rigorously  monitor  claim  disbursal  process,  a  dedicated  module  namely 'Digiclaim Module' has been operationalized for payment of claims from Kharif 2022 onwards.  It involves integration of National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) with Public Finance Management System (PFMS) and accounting system of Insurance Companies to provide timely & transparent processing of all claims.
-  The PMFBY  operational guidelines provide for stratified grievance redressal mechanism.  To  better  resolve  all  the  grievances/complaints  under  the  scheme,  a

Unified Krishi Rakshak Portal and Helpline (KRPH) has been developed to serve as the centralized grievance redressal platform.

-  Also, towards leveraging technology in implementation of the scheme, various steps like capturing of yield data/Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) data through CCE-Agri App & uploading it on the NCIP, allowing insurance companies to witness the conduct of CCEs, integration of State land records with NCIP etc. have already been taken to improve timely settlement of the claims to farmers.

Following technologies for Objective Crop Damage & Loss Assessment and transparency have also been approved recently for implementation w.e.f. 2023-24:

- i. YES-TECH (Yield Estimation System Based on Technology) for gradual migration to Remote-Sensing based yield estimation to help assess yields as well as fair and accurate Crop Yield Estimation . This initiative has been launched for paddy & wheat crops from Kharif 2023 wherein 30% weightage to yield estimation will mandatorily be assigned to YES-TECH derived yield. Soybean crop has been added from Kharif 2024 season.
- ii. WINDS (Weather Information Network and Data System) for setting up of Network of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) & Automatic Rain-Gauges (ARG) to the tune of 5 times of existing  network for collecting hyper-local weather data at GP & Block level. This will be fed into a National unified  network of AWS & ARG with interoperability & sharing  of  data  in  coordination  with  India  Meteorological  Department  (IMD).    WINDS provides  data  not  only  for  YES-TECH  but  also  for  effective  drought  &  disaster management,  accurate  weather  prediction  and  offering  better  parametric  insurance products.

Department  is  regularly  monitoring  the  functioning  of  insurance  companies,  including timely settlement of claims through weekly video conferences of all stakeholders, one to one meeting as well as National Review Conferences.

Based on the experience gained, views of various stakeholders and with a view to ensure better transparency, accountability, timely payment of claims to the farmers and to make the scheme more farmer friendly, Government has periodically revised the Operational Guidelines of the PMFBY comprehensively to ensure that the eligible benefits under the scheme reach the farmers timely and transparently.

Due  to  various  initiatives  taken  under  the  scheme,  the  Gross  Cropped  Area  (GCA) covered in 2023-24 was 604 lakh Ha. as compared to 501 lakh Ha. in 2022-23, with a growth of over 20.5%.  The number of unique farmers enrolled was 3.97 crore in 2023-24 as compared to 3.17 crore in 2022-23 with a growth of over 25%.   Hence, the coverage of area and farmers is at all time highest level till date under the scheme.

Though  the  scheme  is  voluntary  for  the  farmers,  non-loanee  farmers'  coverage  has increased to 55% of the total coverage under the scheme during 2023-24, which shows the voluntary acceptability/popularity of the scheme.

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