Jaipur: Many farmer families in the state are waiting for payment of the insurance cover for personal accident and death given by the cooperatives department while processing various short-term loans to farmers.
Farmers get two kinds of insurance upon taking short-term loans: personal accident insurance and the Jeevan Suraksha or life insurance cover. However, many insurance claims filed under these heads by farmers or their families are still pending.
The apex bank of cooperatives in the state, The Rajasthan State Cooperative Bank, has written to the MDs of central cooperative banks across the state to have a word with insurance companies to expedite the insurance claim process.
TOI spoke to the authorities of the cooperatives department to know about the status of insurance claims by farmers in the state. An officer, quoting figures from the letter written by The Rajasthan State Cooperative Bank to the MDs of the central cooperative banks, said, “In the year 2020-21, of the 966 claims made by families of farmers who died in accidents, 622 families received insurance money of a total of Rs 61.49 crore. However, 106 insurance claims of Rs 10.06 crore remained pending from the insurance companies. In the year 2022-23, out of the total 1,321 insurance claims, payments were made to only 86 families, while the rest 1,206 await claims of a total of Rs 120.50 crore from the insurance companies.” The cooperatives department provides accidental insurance cover of Rs 10 lakh to farmers who take short-term crop loans from it. In case of death of the farmer in an accident, his family gets Rs 10 lakh.
The insurance claims of farmers who took loans from cooperative banks have been in a state of disarray for years. “In the case of accidental death of a farmer where he dies of electrocution while watering the crops, snake bite, or natural calamity, his family should get the 25% of the claim amount immediately after the death and the rest should be given within a span of 90 days. In many cases it is seen that it is pending with the insurance companies,” said Subah Sehgal, a farmer and activist at Sriganganagar.
He added that there have been cases when the farmer’s family received the accidental death insurance claim after six to seven years.
“This is a serious issue and the state government should start taking action against the insurance companies,” Sehgal added.
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