Chief Secretary reviews progress of PMFBY at SLCCI meeting

'86000 farmers avail crop insurance facility in Jammu'

SRINAGAR, SEPTEMBER 5: Chief Secretary B B Vyas today chaired the 5th meeting of State Level Committee on Crop Insurance (SLCCI) of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna at the Civil Secretariat here.

The meeting was also attended by Financial Commissioner, Revenue, Lokesh Jha, Principal Secretary, Agriculture Production, Sandeep Kumar Naik, Principal Secretary Finance, Navin Kumar Choudhary, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Rohit Kansal, CGM NABARD, S K Majumdar and other officers of Finance, Agriculture Production, Revenue and other allied departments.  

During the meeting, the Chief Secretary was told that the insurance scheme has already kicked off with more than 86000 farmers insuring their crops such as Maize, Paddy, Oilseed and Mango in Jammu region while the scheme hasn't been launched in Kashmir division where the insurance companies are quoting very high premium.

According to officials, a private insurance firm has sought award cost of Rs 326 crore for one calendar year covering Maize, Paddy, Oilseed, Apple and Saffron crops in three districts of Ganderbal, Budgam and Kupwara alone with total sum assured of Rs 1027 crore.

"There's no way the State will go ahead with the tender (of private firm) unless the fundamentals are settled. We must first establish a standardized cost of production and scale of finance for crops grown in both Jammu and Kashmir regions, such as Maize and Paddy, to understand the disparity in premiums," the Chief Secretary said.

He directed the officials to compile the list of incidences of crop damage or production in Jammu and Kashmir and also suggest an ideal or possible rate of premium, "We can also consider involving central insurance companies for a period of two years. The state will write to the Centre to extend the deadline of the scheme," he said, while setting October 5 as the next date of meeting of the SLCCI.