IMPORTANT POINT
Fixation of Compensation —The District Commission has to rely upon the crop cutting experiment report of Director of Economics and Statistics Department to assess the actual loss if any suffered by the respondents as per crop wise sum insured is the maximum limit of coverage as per NAIS based on the affidavit and material evidence to fix the compensation.

ORDER (COMMON)

Sunita C. Bagewadi, Member—The Appellant/Opposite Party No.1 being aggrieved by the order dated 18-1-2020, 10-01-2020 and 10-12-2019 passed by the District Consumer Commission, Gadag in Complaint Nos.2/2019, 22/2019, 24/2019, 25/2019, 60/2019, 29/2019, 30/2019, 31/2019, 32/2019, 33/2019, 39/2019, 40/2019, 41/2019, 42/2019, 43/2019 and 44/2019 respectively.

2. The Appellant/Opposite Party No.1 are the same in all these Appeals and the facts involved in these Appeals are one and the same. Hence, these Appeals are taken up together and are being disposed of by a common order.

3. The brief facts of the complaints are that the complainants have sowed the Bengalgram, Sunflower, Maize and Jowar crops in 2016-17 in their respective lands at Naregal and Magadi villages and insured their crops with the Agricultural Insurance Company by paying insurance premium amount through Nodal Banks in the year 2016-17 under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). The said crops failed due to shortfall of rain. The complainants are the non-loanee farmers. In the year 2016-2017 was hit by draughts because of lack of rainfall, the whole crops were ruined. The complainants expected to receive the compensation of the total loss of the said Rabi season crops. The policy coverage in case of any natural calamities/disasters to the crops of insured person/farmers, the policy safeguards under the calamities. The complainants have purchased the policy to the said year and eagerly waited to receive the crop insurance compensation for the total loss of the crop under the said scheme, but the complainants have not received the compensation amount till today. Therefore, the complainants got issued legal notice to the Opposite Parties calling upon them to pay the compensation, but till today the Opposite Parties have not replied for the same. Hence, there is deficiency in service and prayed to order the Opposite Parties to pay the total loss and damage of the crops towards compensation for mental agony and hardship. Hence they filed the complaints seeking relief.

4. After service of the notice, the 1st Opposite Party/Insurance Company appeared through his counsel and filed written version contended that the complaints are not maintainable either in law or on facts. The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is being implemented in the country under the orders of Government of India vide ref: No.13015/03/2016/credit II dated 23-2-2016 of the Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, New Delhi w.e.f. 7-10-2017.

The 1st Opposite Party further contended that the State Government already looking after implementation of National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS)/National Crop Insurance Programme (NCIP) may be designated as Nodal Department for implementation of PMFBY. The State Level Coordination Committee on Crop Insurance (SLCCCI) presently overseeing implementation of NAIS and NCIP may be authorized to oversee implementation of MPFBY. It is submitted that the scheme operates on the basis of “Area Approach” i.e. defined areas of each notified crop for widespread calamities and insurance unit is village/village Panchayath level to be decided by the State/UT government. Yield date will be furnished to insurance company by State Government/UT, in accordance with the cut-off dates fixed and drops and areas notified, based on total number of CCEs being conducted. Insurance company should be given complete access to co-witness the CCEs as also the digital images of the CCEs and relevant data in the requisite format by the State Government. It is further submitted that if “Actual yield” per hectare of insured crop for the insurance unit in insured season, falls short of specified “Threshold Yield”, all insured farmers growing that crop in the defined area are deemed to have suffered shortfall in yield of similar magnitude. The Claim shall be calculated as per the following formula,

(Threshold yield – Actual yield) X Sum insur