Lok Sabha Question No. 252 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-12-05
Subject: Complaints regarding Insurance Companies
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Shriniwas Dadasaheb Patil

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

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 252

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 5 TH  DECEMBER, 2023

## COMPLAINTS REGARDING INSURANCE COMPANIES

252. SHRI SHRINIWAS PATIL:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE क ृ िष एवं िकसान कʞाण मंũी be pleased to state:

- (a) whether any complaints have been received regarding the non payment or insufficient payment  of  insurance  to  farmers  by  agricultural  insurance  companies  especially  in  the State of Maharashtra;
- (b)  if  so,  the  measures that the Government has proposed to take to solve this problem; and
- (c) the mechanism provided by the Government to the farmers to redress such complaints against the insurance companies?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE क ृ िष एवं िकसान कʞाण मंũी (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

(a) to (c) :   The selection of Insurance Companies is done by the State Governments by a transparent  bidding  process  wherein  the  L1  bidder  is  awarded  the  cluster.  The  roles  and responsibilities of each stakeholder are defined in the operational guidelines of the scheme for  the  proper  execution  of  the  scheme.  However,  during  the  implementation  of  PMFBY, some complaints against insurance companies about non-payment and 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.,  have been received in the past which have been suitably addressed .

Further, the PMFBY operational guidelines provide for stratified grievance redressal mechanism.  At  the  initial  level,  for  grievance  redressal,  each  block  &  district  have designated  block/district  level  grievance  redressal  officer  to  respond  to  the  grievances  of Farmers, Banks, Insurance Companies etc. within 7 days of receipt of grievance. In case of dissatisfaction  at  block  level,  the  matter  can  be  brought  before  District  Level  Grievance Redressal  Committee  (DGRC)  headed  by  the  District  Magistrate/Collector.  In  case  of disagreement with the decision by any party at district level; the same is represented to the State Level Grievance Redressal Committee (SGRC) within 15 days from the decision of DGRC.    SGRC  is  headed  by  Principal  Secretary/Secretary  of  Nodal  Department.  The SGRC  has  to  dispose  the  grievance  within  15  days  time  of  receipt  of  grievance.  The decision of the Committee shall be accepted by all the parties.

In  addition,  the  PMFBY guidelines  also provide for the  resolution  of yield disputes, between  Insurance Companies  and  States  through State Level Technical Advisory Committee  (STAC)  and  in  case  it  is  unresolved  at  State  level,  further  escalation  can  be made before the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) at Centre Level .

Further, the Department has developed a National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP)  for ensuring auto-administration, 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.

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 :

-  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.
-  WINDS (Weather Information Network and Data System) for Network of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) & Automatic Rain-Gauges (ARG) 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 will provide data not only for YES-TECH but  also  for  effective  drought  &  disaster  management,  accurate  weather  prediction and offering better parametric insurance products.
-  CROPIC (Collection of Real-time photos and Observations of Crops) for Geo-tagged photographs  for  validation  of  sown  Crop  with  Insured  Crop  and  use  of  pictorial analytics for Objective Crop Damage Assessment & Crop Yield Estimation.

Department has been 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.  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  PFMS  and  accounting  system  of  Insurance Companies to provide timely & transparent processing of all claims.

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.

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