Hanumangarh: When the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) or the crop insurance scheme was launched in 2016, it was hailed as a "safety shield" for farmers.But 18 months later, the scheme looks more like another 'fraud' committed on state's hapless farmers, who are already struggling under debt, low prices not to mention other calamities wrought by nature.Farmer Daleep Singh of Hirnawali village in Hanumangarh district cultivates cotton and guar in equal halves in his 15-bigha farm. In July 31 this year, Rs 7,827 was deducted from his SBI account as premium for crop insurance. "The deduction was made without warning. The bank had no clue about what I had sown. Moreover, Rs 1,718 has been deducted as "inspection charges" though no one came for inspection. To top it, the premium has been deducted when the crops were safe and beyond the risk period. My crop was uninsured for 80% of the crop cycle, when the risk was at the highest. The premium has now been deducted for the full period," Daleep Singh says.Farmer Rajender Singh of Chak 3SNM (Srinagar Minor; villages in this area are named after the canal that supplies water) also had to shell out Rs 2,300 as "inspection charges", which is almost the same as insurance premium he doled out for his five-bigha land. Not one farmer, however, recalled ever having seen any inspection of their fields.Gurdeep Singh and his son Uday Singh of village Masruwala were in for a shock when they learned that the premium was deducted for cotton though they had sown paddy. "I sowed paddy!" Gurdeep Singh says. The premium on cotton, a commercial crop, is more than double for paddy. Since he was insured for cotton, his claim would not have been honoured if his paddy crop had failed.Any claims under an insurance policy can only be made after one has paid the premium amount. "April, May, June are the months of greatest risk to crops. But no premium was levied for those months. So if the crops had failed, we may not have benefited at all," says Balwinder Singh Kang, a cotton farmer.Under the PMFBY scheme, the premium was 2% for kharif and 1.5% for rabi crops. For commercial or horticulture crops, the farmer had to pay 5%.As per government data, Rs 125.63 crore was levied from Hanumangarh alone as premium during the the kharif season last year. The claims, meanwhile, came to only Rs 8.71 crore and benefited 7,000 of the 1.37 lakh farmers insured.In May this year, Hannan Mollah, general secretary, All India Kisan Sabha, raised this matter in the parliament, citing agriculture ministry data showing that Rs 21,500 crore has been levied as premium under the scheme, with claims coming to only Rs 4,270.55 crore. While this was less than 20%, the actual claims paid to farmers was just ?714.14 crore, or 3.31% of the premium income. Mollah said that private insurance companies received almost 97% of the premium as profit.Farmer and Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan member Gurpreet Sangha says, "Insurance firms seem to deliberately insure wrong crops. The deduction of premium is delayed. This could be a calculated measure to benefit private insurers. Inspection charges exist, but no real inspection occurs. Claims remain unpaid and dues have been mounting. There is reason to suspect connivance between the government and insurance firms to cheat farmers."Not surprisingly, farmers, currently protesting in Sikar, Hanumangarh and other districts, area demanding an "effective crop insurance". While joint director (insurance) in the state agriculture department S S Chaturvedi could not be contacted for the story as he was on tour, agriculture minister Prabhu Lal Saini's phone was switched off.

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