Nine booked for paying insurance to landless farmers | Lucknow News
Kanpur: A scam has been detected under the Prime Minister’s Crop Insurance Scheme (PMCIS) in UP’s Farrukhabad district where Rs 68 lakh was transferred to 35 farmers who are landless but were paid compensation for crop losses under the scheme.Nine bank branch managers and three crop insurance personnel posted in the district have been booked for the alleged fraud.In 2 separate FIRs filed by the Deputy Director (Agriculture), 32 farmers, of whom 14 are landless, have been named as accused. The case pertains to the 2024 rabi season, where HDFC Ergo company had insured crops of 8,849 farmers. When crops got damaged, the insurance company paid claims worth Rs 2.28 crore to 232 farmers. This included payments of Rs 4 lakh each into the accounts of several landless farmers. District magistrate Ashutosh Kumar Dwivedi ordered a probe into landholdings of farmers who received insurance compensation above Rs 1 lakh.The subsequent probe done by naib tehsildar, kanungo and ADO agriculture revealed that the farmers were landless and, hence, did not own any land at the location mentioned in insurance claim records. A total payment of Rs 68 lakh was made in violation of PMCIS rules.At Jahanganj police station in Farrukhabad, cases were filed against 11 farmers from village Banthalshahpur, the branch manager and employees of crop insurance company HDFC ERGO, representatives Arun Kumar and Praveen Pal of General Insurance Company Limited, Mumbai, branch managers and employees of Bank of India Mohammadabad and SBI Madanpur, along with 11 unknown farmers.At Amritpur police station in the district, reports were filed against Praveen Pal, Vikas Kumar, and Arun Kumar of HDFC Agro General Insurance, branch managers and employees of Bank of India (Rajalmai, Ganipur Jogpur, Madanpur), Aryavart Bank (Gandhi, Amritpur) and Union Bank of India Farrukhabad, along with a total of 21 unknown farmers.During investigation in gram panchayat Balipatti Rani in Amritpur tehsil area, it was revealed that out of 15 farmers who received crop insurance claims, 14 had no land. These 14 farmers were paid Rs 24.89 lakh. One farmer had only 0.026 hectare land and was given Rs 2,57,160 against Rs 2,228—an excess payment of Rs 23,487.Deputy agriculture director, Arvind Mohan Mishra, said that based on the investigation report cases have been filed against nine bank managers and three insurance company employees at Jahanganj and Amritpur. Further probe is underway, he said.
