 "A farmer channels water to irrigate his wheat field on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Photo: Reuters")
Maharashtra government will begin implementation of the Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) from April 1, the Legislative Council was told on Monday.
Replying to a debate on a question raised by Narendra Patil (NCP), state's Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse said that compensation worth Rs 2,000 crore, which includes 45% share from Centre and state government and 10% by farmers, will be disbursed.
"This measure will incur an additional burden of Rs 200 crore on the state exchequer," he added.
Replying to supplementary queries, Khadse blamed the meagre compensation given earlier for select crops on flawed compensation norms decided by the previous Congress-NCP government, which evoked strong reactions from the Opposition.
Khadse said that the Centre has now included all types of crops in the PMFBY scheme.
"Damages to crops in post harvesting, cutting and harvesting, storm, unseasonal rains, flooding of fields, landslides and hailstorms have been included in the norms for granting compensation under the scheme," he said.
He further said the premium share for the farmers has been reduced so as to give enhanced compensation to more farmers.
Earlier, replying to the debate, Minister of State for Agriculture Ram Shinde assured the House that action shall be taken against those Revenue officials in western Maharashtra, who, without making field visits, prepared reports of no damage being reported in their respective region.
