PIL Claims Telangana Only State Without Crop Insurance Scheme To Protect Farmers, High Court Issues Notice

The Telangana High Court has issued notice to the State, Centre, Commissioner of Agriculture and Director of Horticultural in a Public Interest Litigation for implementation of the comprehensive 'Crop Insurance Scheme' in the State.

The PIL was taken up by the division bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar based on a letter authored by Advocate Rapulu Bhaskar claiming that Telangana was the only State in the entire country which did not have a crop insurance scheme to protect its farmers.

He further stated that the Centre had introduced a Scheme called the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) for farmers nationwide, yet it was not implemented in Telangana by the State officials.

"It has further been stated in the communication that crops around 2.23 lakh acres were damaged in the month of March, 2023 and last week of April, 2023. It is further stated that instead of making payment into crop insurance scheme, the State Government is making payment of compensation to the tune of Rs.10,000/-( ten thousand) per acre," the Bench noted.

The Chief Justice verbally observed,

"You are only granting 10,000/- per acre, if there is a more beneficial provision that should be adopted, whatsoever a scheme it might be under... The object is to give more benefits to the farmers. This isn't adversarial litigation." 

The matter will be taken up after six weeks. 

Case Title: Letter v. Union of India

Counsel for respondents: Gadi Praveen Kumar, Deputy Solicitor General of India, Mohd. Arif Wali, Assistant Government Pleader for Services-III, Ram Prasad Teegala, Government Pleader for Finance, Information and Technology and Planning Department.

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