Kolkata, Fev 02 (UNI) Starting from the next financial year, that is, 2019-20, the West Bengal Government has decided to pay the full amount of the premium to farmers for the crop insurance scheme, Bangla Fasal Bima Yojana (BFBY).The full premium includes the Centre’s share, the State’s share and the farmers’ share. This was announced recently by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Till now, the Bengal Government used to pay 80 per cent of the premium, that is, the State Government’s share and the farmers’ share. Now, the State Government has decided that it would no longer take the help of the Centre as, despite paying the lion’s share, the Centre used to take all the credit by making it mandatory for the prime minister’s picture to be there on all promotional and other materials for the scheme.
The State Agriculture has already completed the procedures required for the new structure of the scheme.The State Government has also brought in certain changes to the scheme to make it more attractive for farmers so that more and more of them opt for it.Farmers would now be able to get their crops insured against less earnings due to loss in production as a result of unfavourable weather or damages due to heavy rain, fire, lightning, storms, cyclones, typhoons, tornadoes, hailstorms, floods, droughts, and damages by insects and organisms like fungi, bacteria, viruses, etc.
In recent years, among the help provided by the State Government to farmers include paying almost 30 lakh farmers about Rs 1,200 crore for damages to their crops due to floods and droughts, waiving off of the agricultural tax and mutation fee, and the latest, introduction of the Krishak Bandhu Scheme.
Besides the recent announcements of the Krishak Bandhu Scheme and the full payment of subsidies for crop insurance by the State Government, and the earlier announcements of the waiving off duties on mutation and of agricultural tax, another announcement has been made ? pension for farmers.
The pension amount would be Rs 1,000 per farmer, and the rules are as follows :
Minimum age should be 60 years, and for differently-abled farmers, 55 years, must be a resident of the state for the preceding ten years, to be a farmer, must own a maximum of one acre, and to be a bargadar, must own a maximum of two acres, or can be a landless labourer, should not have any other source of income or not have anyone to take care of and should not be drawing any emolument or pension through any other scheme of either the State or the Central Government.
