Bhubaneswar: Even though the Revenue department officials’ involvement in crop cutting experiments (CCE) under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is essential to ensure benefits for the farmers, the officials are not cooperating at field level, official sources said here Saturday.
In a letter to Revenue secretary CS Kumar, Agriculture secretary Sourav Garg said, “It has been observed that the participation of revenue officials in the programme (in CCE) is not up to the desired level. In districts like Balasore, Boudh, Cuttack, Deogarh, Gajapti, Puri and Sambalpur, etc, Revenue officials have not yet registered as district CCE user.”
This non-cooperation of the officials may lead to dislocation in the approval of CCE data collected by primary workers, he pointed out.
Sources said CCE is vital to distribute insurance claims to the farmers, whose crops have been covered under PMFBY. Without proper validation, the farmers may be deprived of getting their rights, they said.
Acting on Garg’s letter, the Revenue department has asked all the Collectors to ensure participation of revenue officials in CCE. Revenue and Disaster Management (R&DM) additional Secretary Sailendra Dwivedi wrote to all the Collectors in this regard Saturday.
Ambit of PMFBY
Under PMFBY, insurance coverage is being provided to crops like paddy, groundnut, cotton, turmeric, ginger, red gram (arhar) and maize. The insurance covers loss of standing crops, sowing risk, post-harvest damage and other localised risks. The crop damage due to drought, flood, erratic rain, heavy rain, earthquake and diseases have been covered under the scheme.
PNN