By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 9 August: Agriculture Minister Ganesh Joshi directed the officials of the insurance companies to provide crop insurance compensation to apple orchardists immediately, keeping in mind their interests. In this regard, Joshi held a meeting with the Director General of Agriculture, Horticulture Director and State Head of SBI Insurance Company in the CAP office on Friday regarding the cancellation of insurance of farmers of Uttarkashi district.
During the meeting, Joshi directed the departmental officials and the officials of the insurance company to provide compensation to the farmers immediately. The Minister also asked the Director General to take immediate action at his level and to deploy officers and employees of the insurance company at the block, tehsil level as per the guidelines of the Government of India. He said that, if farmers have taken insurance to protect their crops from rain/drought and hailstorm, then they should get proper compensation.
The Agriculture Minister has also written a letter to Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in this regard and requested reopening of the government portal so that the apple crop can be insured again. It is worth noting that, a few days ago, the farmers of Naugaon, Purola and Mori blocks of Uttarkashi district met Ganesh Joshi and handed over a memorandum to him informing him about the matter. The apple crop was insured by the farmers in the month of December-January (2023-24) under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, but even after receiving the insurance premium, CSC / SBI General Insurance Company, the insurance is being cancelled. The farmers’ premium was returned by SBI General Insurance Company and they were requested to insure again.
Director General of Agriculture and Horticulture Ranveer Singh Chouhan, Horticulture Director Deepti Singh, representatives of the insurance company and progressive farmers Sanjay Thapliyal and Azad Dimri from Uttarkashi were also present at the meeting.
