Maharashtra Official flags discrepancy between insured onion crop actual cultivation

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Sep 10 (PTI) The Maharashtra Agriculture Commissionerate has asked the collectors of eight districts to check the ground situation after pointing out that the insured area of onion crop in these areas is much bigger than the actual area where onion is cultivated.
A letter was sent by agriculture director Vinaykumar Awate to the district collectors and superintending agriculture officers of Nashik, Dhule, Ahmednagar, Pune, Solapur, Satara, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Beed in this regard, official sources said on Tuesday.
Onion has been planted over 75,312 hectares across these districts. However, going by insurance applications, 2,63,136 hectares of land -- 349 percent more -- appears to be under cultivation, the letter said.
The amount of premium for onion per hectare of land is between Rs 46,000 to 81,422, and the entire amount is paid by the government. It is farmers who declare that they have planted a particular crop, but there is no verification, the letter noted.
Insuring a crop without actually planting it amounts to cheating the government, it said.
District officials should obtain reports from villages through the employees of insurance companies about such discrepancy and action should be taken against those who have filed bogus applications, the letter added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)