Former chief minister and leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda said Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is a means to benefit insurance companies instead of farmers.
“The scheme is making farmers poor and companies richer,” said Hooda in a statement, reacting to a notice the Punjab and Haryana high court has sent to the Centre.
Hooda said the facts revealed by the petitioners, who went to the high court against this scheme, are shocking. The former chief minister said insurance companies in Haryana collected ₹253 crore as premium, while only ₹20 crore was given to the farmers as compensation. In the amount given to the companies, ₹123.55 crore was deducted from the farmers’ account, while ₹83.54 crore was paid by the state government and ₹45.26 crore by the Central government, he said.
“If we look at the given figures, the insurance companies gave only 8% of the amount as compensation to the farmers as compared to the amount received as premium. Even before this, it has been revealed through RTI that the scheme is only benefiting the companies. Through this scheme, in the first five years itself, the insurance companies across the country earned a profit of ₹40,000 crore, while the farmers across the country kept yearning for compensation. This is the reason why this scheme was discontinued in many states, even those ruled by the BJP,” he said.