Lok Sabha Question No. 2508 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-12-10
Subject: Grievances filed by Farmers against Insurance Companies
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Shri Shreyas M Patel

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2508

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 10 TH  DECEMBER, 2024

## GRIEVANCES FILED BY FARMERS AGAINST INSURNCE COMPANIES

2508.  SHRI SHREYAS M PATEL:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ ͪष एवं ͩकसान कãयाण मंğी be pleased to state:

- (a) the total number of grievances filed by farmers against insurance companies under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) during the last three years, along with the State-wise details of these grievances;
- (b) the  current  regulatory  framework  in  place  to  oversee  the  actions  of  insurance companies under PMFBY and to safeguard farmers' rights;
- (c) the measures being taken by the Government to improve the grievance redressal mechanism for farmers facing delays, rejections or harassment by insurance providers;
- (d) whether  any  penalties  have  been  imposed  on  insurance  companies  for  noncompliance or delays in claims settlement, if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the details of steps being taken to ensure transparency and timely disbursement of insurance claims to prevent distress among farmers?

## ANSWER

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

(a)  to  (c):    All  the  major  work  like  selection  insurance  model,  selection  of  Insurance Companies through transparent bidding process, assessment of crop yield/crop loss for calculation of admissible claims under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) 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. 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,  nondeployment of sufficient personnel by insurance companies etc.,  have been received in the past which have been 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 and lunched in January, 2024.  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 55.49 lakh calls have been received on KRPH.  Out of these,  24.96 lakh are grievances from farmers.  Rest of the issues were either informatory or seeking advisory.   Out of the grievances registered, 22.55 lakhs have been disposed (90%) successfully.    This has helped the Central and State Governments to monitor the grievances of stakeholders at a unified platform.

Further, out of the 568 complaints/grievances received on Public Grievances (PG) Portal (CPGRAMS) from 01.12.2021 to till date, 552 grievances have been disposed.

(d): A  provision  has  been  made  in  the  Revised  Operational  Guidelines  of  Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) that 12% interest rate per annum to be paid by the Insurance Company to farmers for delay in settlement claims beyond 10 days of prescribed cut  off  date  for  payment  of  claims  provided  the  yield  data/crop  loss  information  and applicable premium subsidy is paid on time by the concerned State Government.   Further, it has now been decided to automatically calculate the penalty by default in claim payment by insurance company through Digiclaim module on NCIP w.e.f. Kharif 2024 season.

(e): Government has taken various steps to strengthen implementation of this scheme including reduction in disbursal time of claims, which are as under:

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.

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. Soybean crop has been added from Kharif 2024 season.  Claim payouts in 7 States have been done on basis of YESTECH in Kharif 2023.
-  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 will provide data not only for YES-TECH but also for effective drought & disaster management, accurate weather prediction and offering better parametric insurance products.

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.

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