SC tells Cente, Make crop insurance scheme more effective

NEW DELHI: With a spurt in farmers' suicides in the recent past, the Supreme Court on Thursday questioned the Centre's much-hyped crop insurance scheme but upon the intervention of attorney general K K Venugopal, it agreed that the problem was far too deep rooted to be solved overnight.

The government is not infusing enough funds for payment of insurance premiums and a large number of private insurance companies are not disbursing the assured amount to farmers in case of crop failure, leading to huge spurt in suicides," Gonsalves said. 

Venugopal said the insurance scheme was unveiled last year and within one year, 5.3 crore of the country's 12 crore farmers (44%) and 40% of the crop area had been covered. 

"The government is doing all within its means and power to prevent this centuries-old malaise (suicide by farmers). The Supreme Court appears to assume that all allegations made by the petitioners are correct. This scheme is just one year old. Allow some time to the government and then examine whether the rate of suicide has come down or not. What is the hurry for the court to bother so much about it?" Venugopal asked. 

The bench immediately brought the heat down and said, "It is not an adversarial hearing. There is a motive behind this hearing. The officials concerned must understand what is going on in the court hearing. Once they understand, they will be in a better position to implement the scheme." 

To further assuage the government, the bench said, "We are of the view that an issue as serious as this (farmers' suicides) cannot be dealt with overnight. The AG is justified in seeking time for the government to implement it." 

The SC asked the government to take into consideration the suggestions made by Gonsalves and Rakesh Kumar, the latter talking about the ground situation faced by farmers and formulating ways to implement the insurance scheme better, to make PMFBY effective.