Samiti urges State govt. to release crop insurance claims before Sept. 17

Accusing the State government of delaying in the release of crop insurance claims, the members of Zilla Raitha Horata samiti have threatened to stage a protest and gherao Chief Minister Siddaramaiah during his scheduled visit to participate in Kalyana Karnataka Utsav Kalaburagi city in Kalaburagi on September 17, if he failed to release the crop insurance amount immediately.

Samiti members Avvanna Myakeri and Basavaraj Ingin addressing press conference here on Saturday said that the State government in March 2025, had approved ₹667.73 crore of insurance claims to farmers who suffered crop loss in Kalaburagi, of which ₹340.99 crore insurance claim was released and disbursed to farmers’ accounts; and now the government has announced of releasing only ₹291 crore against the remaining ₹326.83 crore insurance claims.

Mr. Myakeri and Mr. Ingin urged the Siddaramaiah-led government to release the ₹326.83 crore pending crop insurance claims along with the interest to the farmers at once; they also demanded the government to extend compensation of ₹307 crore for the crop loss to the farmers who have not insured their crops.

Conduct crop re-survey

The Samiti members expressed displeasure against the survey conducted by officials and demanded the authorities to conduct a re-survey to get an accurate report of the crop damages. Though the district has suffered up to 80 % crop damages, the preliminary survey conducted by the revenue and agriculture department shows that the Kharif crop suffered only on 1.05 lakh hectares against the total cultivated area of 8.67 lakh hectares (ha) in the district; and red gram crop was damaged only on 58,319 ha against the total cultivation on 6.06 lakh hectares.

The Samiti members demanded the State government to declare Kalaburagi as rain-affected district and release the compensation of last Kharif season before September 17.