Give wide publicity to crop Insurance scheme: Karnataka HC tells govt

The High Court on Monday directed the state government to ensure that wide publicity of crop insurance schemes is given to farmers in all the districts.

A division bench, headed by Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka, said that the farmers may not be aware of the insurance scheme and its benefits.

The bench was hearing a PIL filed by Akhanda Karnataka Raitha Sangha on the issues of farmers’ suicides and implementation of the crop insurance scheme.

Perusing the affidavit filed by the government on the meetings of the state and district level grievance redressal committees, the bench observed that frequent meetings have not been held.

Going through the minutes of the meeting, the bench said that the last meeting held was on March 16, 2019, in the Yadgir district. “However, we find from the minutes of the meeting in Yadgir district that there were no enquiries made in the villages to ascertain whether there are any farmers who have been denied the benefit of the crop insurance scheme,” the bench said.

Yadgir district committee has been directed to consider the specific grievances made in complaints in January and February 2021. The committee has also been directed to depute an appropriate officer to visit the villages with a view to find out whether any farmers are deprived of the benefit of the scheme.

“We direct the state government to ensure that wide publicity is given to the crop insurance scheme and to the fact that any farmer deprived of the scheme has the right to approach the district grievance redressal committee. Steps shall be taken to give wide publicity in terms of Clause 26 on the availability of crop insurance scheme,” the bench said.

The government advocate informed the court that because of the code of conduct due to by-election, the state is not in a position to take a decision regarding the payment of compensation to those farmers who ended their lives by suicide after availing loans from private money lenders.