Singha seeks Rs 7-cr relief for hail-hit Narkanda farmers

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 19

Senior CPM leader and Theog MLA Rakesh Singha on Friday demanded a compensation of Rs 7 crore for farmers from Narkanda in Theog, whose apple, cherry and other stone fruit crops damaged in hailstorm on Thursday.

Singha also alleged a scam in a weather-based crop insurance scheme and sought a probe into the matter. He alleged that a private company had earned a profit of Rs 23 crore out of which Rs 14 crore was collected as premium from more than 85,000 farmers who had availed benefits under the scheme in 2017-18.

In a letter to Chief Secretary BK Aggarwal, the CPM leader demanded the assessment of loss suffered by Narkanda farmers due to hailstorm in Narkanda areas and immediate release of relief incurred due to this and at the hands of the private company.

He claimed that the farmers had suffered a loss of Rs 5 crore due to damage to their crops. Singha alleged that the crop insurance scheme had become a money-making business for private companies in the state that were earning crores as profit every year. Farmers were paying huge premium, but were getting nothing in terms of compensation, Singha alleged.

He claimed that 1.61 lakh farmers got themselves enrolled under the scheme in 2017-18, of which 85,000 were from Shimla district.

“Farmers had paid Rs 14 crore as premium to IFCO-Tokio Insurance Company. The state and Central governments also gave Rs 7 crore each as their share to the company. However, the company paid only Rs 5 crore to farmers, and the remaining amount came as a profit to it. It is certainly open loot of the public money,” Singha alleged in the letter.

Rakesh Singha, who is also the president of the Himachal Seb Udpadak Sangh, demanded a probe into the weather-based crop insurance scheme and the PM Fasal Bima Yojana.