Rythu Bima claims pile up as government leaves farmers’ families waiting

Several claims under Telangana's Rythu Bima scheme remain pending or have been returned despite the State government discontinuing the farmers' life insurance programme and not renewing the premium with LIC.

Hyderabad: Even after the State government drew the curtains on the popular Rythu Bima scheme last month, several claims applications filed by farmers’ families are still pending. Many applications have also been returned, citing various reasons.

Under Rythu Bima, the State government provides insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh to farmers in the event of their death. The government pays a premium of nearly Rs 1,350 crore towards implementation of the scheme, which has been in operation for the past eight years.

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The last date for payment of the premium to the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) was August 14. However, the State government has not paid the premium for extending insurance coverage to farmers. As the premium has not been paid, the insurance coverage is no longer available and no benefits would accrue to farmers’ families.

Meanwhile, several farmers’ families are concerned over claims applications that have been pending for a long time. The issue came up for discussion in the Legislative Council when BRS MLC Dasoju Sravan sought details of the pending applications.

The State government informed the House that 2,587 applications were still under processing, while 413 applications had been returned.

Several claims applications are either pending or have been rejected for different reasons. These include farmers being found ineligible as their age was not between 18 and 59 years, as per UIDAI records, during the relevant policy year.

In some cases, court cases and discrepancies in age were cited as reasons. There were also cases where the age gap between the farmer and nominee was found to be very small, such as that between a mother and son or a grandmother and grandson.

Furthermore, in some cases, applicants had not submitted the required documents. In other cases, the nominee could not be traced. Officials said these were among the reasons for claims remaining pending.

However, officials said a provision is available on the Rythu Bharosa-Rythu Bima portal to track the status of claim settlements. Claims returned by LIC seeking additional documents are being communicated by the district-level nodal officers to the concerned Agriculture Extension Officers (AEOs), who in turn inform the nominees or applicants.

Where applicants submitted the required documents, the claims are being re-submitted to LIC for processing, officials added.

Meanwhile, there has been no official announcement on the future implementation of Rythu Bima. Speculation is rife that the State government may shortly launch Indiramma Family Insurance, or Indiramma Kutumba Jeevitha Bima. In March, the government had formally announced plans to launch Indiramma Kutumba Jeevitha Bima, covering 1.15 crore families across the State.

 Status of Rythu Bima applications

• Received: 1,23,557
• Settled: 1,20,557
• Returned: 413
• In process: 2,587