Barmer farmers to get addl Rs 229 cr as crop compensation

New Delhi/ Barmer: In a high level meeting chaired by Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Wednesday in presence of MoS Kailash Choudhary, officials of agricultural and finance ministries and officials from agricultural insurance company, the government has directed the insurance company to release an additional amount of Rs 229 crore as crop compensation to the farmers of bordering Barmer district. Earlier the firm has released Rs 311 crore. With the recent announcement, the total amount will now be Rs 540 crore.

Both the Central and the State Governments were facing strong criticism from the farmer’s organisations after the insurance firm released a nominal amount while rejecting the actual claims. Not only this, leaders of political parties like BJP, Congress and RLP were at loggerheads on the issue.

Union MoS Kailash Choudhary said that the insurance firm has been directed to release an additional amount of Rs 229 cr to Barmer farmers. He said that After a prolonged wait, Agricultural Insurance Company had recently released the insurance claim of Kharif 2021 of Rs 311 cr. Shocking aspect is that many farmers have received claims of mere 2, 3 or 5 paisa. Farmer’s organisation is claiming that the claim amount should be around Rs 600 cr, but the company had betrayed farmers. Farmers had paid the premium of Rs 411 crore to the insurance company.