Odisha CM urges Union Agri Min for extension of PMFBY registration cut-off date

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today wrote to Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh urging him for extension of cut-off date of registration of farmers under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) till August 16.

Mentioning that Odisha with a long coastline is prone to various natural calamities like drought and flood, the CM wrote, “Keeping in view the instructions of Government of India for covering at least 40% of the farming population under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Government of Odisha had made elaborate plans for covering 25 lakh farmers (22 lakh loanees and 3 lakh non-loanees) and 20 lakh hectares area under the programme to provide a safety net to the farmers.”

“While the registration of the farmers had picked up momentum, the entire system got upset due to snags in the central crop insurance portal. The linking of common service centre portal (the main registration point for non-loanee farmers) to crop insurance portal had failed, thereby increasing the load on the banks who were already busy with covering the loanee farmers. At this crucial juncture, the facilities of directly uploading of data by the banks as well as the offline utility did not work. As a result, the farmers were compelled to run from pillar to post for registering under the programme,” Patnaik said in the letter.

He eventually urged the Union Minister for issuance of suitable directives for extension of cut-off date for registration of farmers till August 16.