Nearly two out of three farmers unaware of insurance schemes, govt fails to keep records : CAG

Lack of insurance records, inadequate support system, low value of crop reimbursement and unawareness about schemes mar the progress of central government’s crop insurance schemes, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said in a latest report .

The report, tabled in Parliament on Friday, pointed out many anomalies in the implementation of schemes like National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS) and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Beema Yojana (PMFBY).

An audit survey of 5,993 farmers revealed that only 37 percent of farmers were aware of the insurance schemes.

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“63 percent farmers had no knowledge of insurance schemes,” said the audit report, highlighting that such schemes were not properly publicised by the government.

The auditing team said that while there was no provision for CAG to audit insurance schemes of private players, records of government insurance schemes were not maintained.

“There is no provision for audit by C&AG under NAIS and PMFBY, though substantial amount of funds are released under these schemes,” the report said.

“Audit did not notice any instance where Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd (AIC) had requisitioned or received such records,” said the CAG report titled ‘Ariculture Crop Insurance Schemes’.

AIC was established in 2003 to look after the implementation of various agricultural insurance schemes by the government.

The report further said that insurance schemes that put huge financial liabilities of Rs 23,400 crore (under NAIS) and Rs 6,402 crore (under weather based crop insurance scheme) on the government, no record for this was maintained.