Mumbai: Following Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s announcement of protests over the crop insurance scheme, the chief minister Devendra Fadnavis-led state government has formed a “grievances disposal committee” at the tehsil level under the chairmanship of the tehsildar to resolve the grievances of farmers and public representatives pertaining to the scheme. The state agriculture department has issued a government resolution (GR) towards the same.

According to the GR, the tehsildar-helmed committee will comprise nine members including the group development officer of the district council, circle agriculture officer, farmers’ representative, representative of a leading bank, representative of the district central cooperative bank, representative of the concerned insurance company, representative of Apale Sarkar Seva Kendra, and the tehsil agriculture officer as member-secretary. The GR stated that the committee had been entrusted the responsibility of addressing farmers’ grievances pertaining to the crop insurance scheme.

All private, cooperative and nationalised banks had been roped in to look into farmers’ participation in the scheme. After verifying the complaints pertaining to registration, as per requirement, the tehsil committee would recommend to the divisional and district level committees.

Dr Ajit Nawale, state secretary and member of the central committee, Kisan Sabha, said, “We welcome the decision but it is not sufficient. It will only help provide relief in problems arising out of management of this crop insurance. Along with that, we are demanding some policy changes like increasing the risk level to 90 per cent which is currently at 70 per cent.”   

An official said that the government was continuously receiving complaints pertaining to the crop insurance scheme through farmers and public representatives. “A committee has been constituted at the state, department and district levels for resolving complaints pertaining to the crop insurance scheme. However for disposal of grievances at the local level, a decision has been taken to constitute a committee at the tehsil level,” he said.

The Sena chief had threatened insurance companies tri for not paying claims to farmers.