Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has said that the Government of Telangana has decided to provide life insurance facility to all the farmers in the state for Rs. 5 lakhs, which he described as the first of its kind in the country and never implemented any where in any state in India.
The Government of Telangana, which, for the welfare of farmer is giving Rs. 8000 per acre under Rythu Bandhu towards investment support and also supplying free power round the clock is now coming out with the unique life insurance scheme to the farmer. The CM said that from this year august 15th the farmers life insurance scheme will commence and they would be given with insurance bonds.
CM has announced that without charging even a single rupee on the farmer the entire premium amount will be paid by the government, what ever might by the total amount. He said that the funds required for the payment of premium shall be budgeted and every year by 1st of August the total premium amount will be credited to the implementing agency, that is the life insurance corporation.
In view of the credibility and enormous network of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) a government of India undertaking, the insurance scheme implementation will be entrusted to them said the Chief Minister.
Irrespective of the reason due to which a farmer dies including natural death, the insured amount of Rs. 5 lakhs shall be paid to the nominee proposed by the insured farmer within ten days of the claim. The CM said that even though the premium amount would be lesser if it is an accidental insurance than that of life insurance, the government has decided to go for the life insurance only no matter the cost for this. The idea behind is to come to the rescue of the deceased family which the government feels as its responsibility. The Chief Minister told the LIC officers that in view of huge quantity of ‘people and premium’ as well as the insured amount, the LIC should take it as prestigious scheme and also take it as challenge.
‘‘The Small and marginal farmers in Telangana account for 93%. There are 18 lakh farmers whose holdings are less than one acre. There livelihood is entirely agriculture and farming and for any reason when the farmer dies his family will have to face lot of hardships. In view of this we have decided to provide Rs. 5 lakh Insurance coverage to the farmer. This would be to ensure proper support to the deceased family. This is another step forward by the government’’ said the CM.
CM has reviewed the designing and implementation process of life insurance to the farmer with officers from agriculture and finance department as well as LIC representatives. In this meeting Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, Chief Advisor Rajiv Sharma, Chief Secretary S.K. Joshi, Raithu Samanvaya Samithi President Gutha Sukhender Reddy, MP Vinod Kumar, Mission Bhagiratha Vice Chairman Vemula Prashanth Reddy, MLA Errabelli Dayakar Rao, Finance Principal Secretary Ramakrishna Rao, Agriculture Commissioner Jagan Mohan Rao, Rangareddy district Collector Raghunandan Rao, LIC R.M R. Chander, D.M.B.S Narasimha, D.M Subramanyam, B.M. G. Patnaik and others participated.
The normal practice followed by any insurance agency is that the insurance will be allowed and agreed for those between age groups of 18 and 60, only those who are below 59 years will be enrolled for life insurance and will be provided coverage till they attain 60 years. And hence in Telangana also the insurance to the farmers will be provided between the age groups of 18 and 59, said CM.
The date of birth as on Aadhaar card will be taken as the standard one. By 15th August 2018 the person to be insured should be between 18 and 59 years of age.
August 15th will be the date every year from which the insurance coverage commences. Accordingly, the government prepares the list and pays the premium.
- LIC provides the insurance certificate to each and every farmer who are insured.
- The farmer whose life is insured shall have the right to propose the nominee to whom the insured amount of Rs. 5 lakh will be given on his death. The Agriculture officers will get these formalities done.
- Within ten days after submitting the claim on the death of the farmer the Rs. 5 lakh insurance amount shall be paid to the nominee failing which LIC has to pay penalty.
- There will be a service agreement between LIC and government of Telangana.
- On behalf of the farmers government pays the premium to the LIC for which there will be budgetary allocation.
- Every month the Agriculture officers will update the farmers details as well as the details of the eligible farmers age wise.
- Agriculture officers will prepares the list of those farmers who are between 18 to 59 age group cluster wise. Government will forwards this list to LIC and makes the payment of premium. Accordingly LIC gets the insurance certificate printed and then they will be distributed to the farmers after August 15th.
The representatives of the life insurance corporation who participated in the meeting described the insurance scheme of Telangana state government for Rupees 5 lakh as a new Indian record as per their knowledge. During the review meeting when CM announced the scheme LIC Regional Manager R. Chander and Deputy Managers BS Narsimha and Subrahmaniam congratulated the CM and Telangana government. They said ‘‘earlier also we handled several group insurance schemes. However the members in them were just limited to thousands. The insurance amount also ranged hardly between one to two lakhs.
To reduce the premium amount normally many prefer accidental insurance scheme. But the Telangana Government not withstanding to pay the huge amount towards premium preferred life insurance to the farmers. For the first time in the history we are experiencing Rs. 5lakh as insured amount under group insurance. It is also a record that several lakhs of farmers are members in the scheme. This never happened in the history of insurance companies in the Country. The group insurance scheme to the farmer of Telangana is a record of its own’’.