Probe launched after 180 people enrol for crop insurance on industrial land

The Agricultural Insurance Company of India has started an investigation into alleged irregularities wherein nearly 180 people enrolled for crop insurance on industrial land in Maharashtras Beed city and some farmers secured cover for crops on nonagriculture land officials saidAn AIC official in the district said they had brought to the notice of Collector Deepa Mudhol Munde that some people enrolled for additional crop insurance in parts of the districtWe know farmers have limited land these days But some farmers enrolled for crop insurance on more than 100 hectares of land Some people enrolled for crop insurance on MIDC nonexistent and nonagricultural land We dont know if these people are real farmers or other persons Our investigation is on the official saidAfter the alleged irregularities came to light ground truthing collection of information on location was ordered on the basis of remote sensingAn inspection conducted by the insurance company over a period of 15 days revealed that some farmers took additional crop insurance for financial gains the official saidAs many as 180 people have taken crop insurance for 188 hectares by showing fields in the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation MIDC area of Beed city as per documents available with the AIC and agriculture departmentSome people operating the Common Service Centres CSC filled up the crop insurance forms for farmers online the official saidAccording to our primary investigation we suspect that the CSC operators and some other people were involved in the irregularities of enrolment for crop insurance A CSC operator in Parbhani district has enrolled a farmer from Beed for crop insurance he saidThree farmers from a village in Ambajogai taluka in Beed district have enrolled for crop insurance on nonagricultural land as per the documentsOne of them has enrolled for insurance of soyabean crop on 458 hectares another one has insured crops on 212 hectares and the third farmer on 1130 hectares of land according to the documentsThese three farmers have now approached the taluka agriculture officer seeking cancellation of their crop insurance saying the application was filled due to their negligenceA doctor from Ashti taluka in Beed and his brother enrolled for insurance for soyabean and tur crops on 988 acres of land according to the documentsWhen AIC officials asked them about it they said they did not enrol for any additional crop insurance and that they have only 11 acres of landBesides two farmers from Jedhewadi and Morjalwadi villages had enrolled for crops on 90 hectares land However during an investigation it was found that their land was not registered in revenue records as per the documentsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever