In a revolutionary move, Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar launched National Crop Insurance Portal’s digitized claim settlement module namely DigiClaim under PM Fasal Bima Yojana at Krishi Bhawan in New Delhi on Thursday.
With the launch of the module, claims will be disbursed electronically, which will benefit the respective farmers of six states namely Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Haryana, claimed the Minister. The automated claim settlement process will be an ongoing activity to ease all insured farmers’ lives and provide them with a sustainable financial flow and support, he added.
Interestingly, with the launch of a DigiClaim Module, insurance claims totalling Rs 1260.35 crore have been disbursed on March 23, 2023 to insured farmers in the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Haryana with the click of a button, and the process will continue as and when the claims are released.
The Union Minister also mentioned that till date Rs 1.32 lakh crore claim amount has been disbursed to the insured farmers under PMFBY. He also took special note of ‘Meri Policy, Mere Haath’ ongoing campaign and observed that the campaign has been monumental in enhancing the awareness around PMFBY at the grassroot levels.
Besides Tomar, junior minister Kailash Choudhary, Agriculture Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Union Agriculture Secretary Shri Manoj Ahuja, CEO, PMFBY Shri Ritesh Chauhan and other senior officials were also present. CMDs of Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd and SBI General Insurance were also present including representatives of National Insurance Company (NIC), HDFC Ergo, Bajaj Allianz, Reliance GIC, ICICI Lombard, Future Generali, IFFCO Tokio, Cholamandlam MS, Universal Sompo and TATA AIG. Representatives from SBI Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Yes Bank were also present at the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Tomar said that it is a matter of pride for the Ministry to have taken a revolutionary step in ensuring that farmers can receive claim amounts digitally in a time bound and automated manner, thereby making our farmers Aatmanirbhar and empowered.
While speaking on the occasion, Tomar said that the Government of India is closely working with all those states which are not part of the scheme and have had discussions with their senior officials in which Andhra Pradesh and Punjab are making a comeback to the scheme. Governments of Telangana, Gujarat, Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand have also been approached to rejoin PMFBY and several discussions have been underway. Out of these states, Telangana and Jharkhand have indicated their willingness to come back under PMFBY, he underlined.
In the current system, there have been several instances of insured farmers’ claims being delayed due to a variety of factors. With this, now farmers’ claims will be processed directly to their respective bank accounts in a transparent and accountable manner. This technology has been enabled through the integration of National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) and Public Finance Management System (PFMS).
This would directly impact the claim reversal ratio, which is expected to go down with DigiClaim. Another noteworthy feature of this digital advancement is that farmers would be able to track the claim settlement process on their mobile phones in real-time and avail the scheme’s benefits.
