Andhra Pradesh High Court - Amravati
Rayidi Sadasiva Rao vs The State Of Andhra Pradesh on 6 July, 2022
Author: M. Ganga Rao
Bench: M. Ganga Rao
HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE M. GANGA RAO
WRIT PETITION No.23625 of 2021
ORDER:
This writ petition, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, is filed seeking the following relief/s:
"..to issue a writ, order or direction more particularly one in the nature of writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the respondents in not paying the crop insurance amount in respect of Kharif 2020 to the petitioners in terms of G.O.Ms.No.79 dated 08.10.2020 of the 1st respondent inspite of having insured crops in their respective lands under Dr.YSR Free crop insurance under crop damage compensation scheme through e-panta registration as per the details in Ex.P.1 statement attached to the writ petition and inspite of the representation of the petitioners sent on 30.08.2021 to the respondents as the same is illegal, arbitrary and discriminatory besides being violative of Articles 14, 21 and 300A of the Constitution of India and consequently direct the respondents to pay insurance amount under Dr.YSR free crop insurance under crop damage compensation scheme for Kharif 2020 to the petitioners respectively in terms of the above G.O..."
Heard learned counsel for the petitioners and learned Assistant Government Pleaders for Agriculture and Finance & Planning appearing for the respondents.
The petitioners claims to be the cultivators of their respective lands by raising BT cotton and registered their names in the e-crop digital crop booking for payment of crop insurance for crop damage for Kharif season 2020 as per the guidelines issued in G.O.Ms.No.79 dated 08.10.2020 issued by the 1st respondent Government. The State Government implemented Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and restructured weather based crop insurance scheme during Kharif 2020 and also made applicable to the lands owned as owners. The Kharif 2 MGR,J WP_23625_21 2020 guidelines issued vide G.O.Ms.No.79, dated 08.10.2020 clearly envisages that the scheme is applicable to the actual cultivators recorded under e-crop. Earlier, under PMFBY, any owner who availed crop loan through bank is automatically enrolled under crop insurance scheme as loanee farmer. The others at their option can enroll into the scheme as non loanee farmers within the stipulated time. Since the loan was availed by the owner, covering the land under crop insurance, the actual cultivator/tenant farmer who incurred cost of inputs etc., is not having much access to the crop insurance. With a view to reduce financial burden on the farmers and to improve coverage of area under crop insurance, the State Government implemented Dr YSR free crop insurance scheme as 100% State Government scheme during Kharif 2020, making all the cultivators growing notified crops in the notified areas eligible for coverage without any separate registration. The State Government formulated free crop insurance scheme keeping the welfare of cultivators in mind and made applicable to all cultivators who are actually cultivating the notified crops in the notified areas based on e- crop registration. During Kharif 2020, the State Government shouldered entire claim liability without any contribution either from the farmer or from the Government of India.
The petitioners claim that they are small and marginal farmers and dependent on agriculture. All the petitioners are residents of Kodavatikallu Village of Chandarlapadu Mandal of Krishna District which was notified for the purpose of crop insurance claims. The 1st petitioner has grown cotton crop and turmeric while all other petitioners have grown cotton crop only during Kharif 2020. Both the cotton and turmeric crops were notified for coverage of the insurance. The 3 MGR,J WP_23625_21 assessment for damage of cotton crop was taken on the basis of average yield in the Mandal and was fixed at Rs.33,291/- per acre and turmeric crop was taken on weather based (failure) and was fixed at Rs.91,334/- per acre. All the petitioners have enrolled/registered their crops under the free insurance scheme through e-panta portal. The enrolment of e- crop booking is the joint exercise undertaken by both agriculture and revenue department officials viz., Village Agricultural Assistant, Rythu Bharosa Kendram and the Village Revenue Officer after physical verification of the crop. The e-crop booking of lands of all the petitioners along with their finger print authentication was also obtained/done by the said officials. The details of e-crop booking so made will be verified by the Mandal Agriculture Officer and will be forwarded to the agriculture department.
As there was a crop failure, the 1st respondent notified Krishna District and the crops namely cotton and turmeric in Chandarlapadu Mandal to which the petitioners belong. The petitioners became entitled for insurance claim as they fulfilled all the conditions prescribed in G.O.Ms.No.79. The details of the extent of land in which petitioners raised crop and receipts of e-crop digital crop booking through e-panta portal for Kharif 2020 downloaded from the e-crop portal are filed along with the writ petition. When the respondent authorities failed to pay crop insurance amount as per their claim, petitioners submitted representation on 30.08.2021, by registered post with acknowledgment due, to all the respondents along with the statement of insurance details of crop raised village wise, land particulars, registration under e-crop insurance through e-panta portal but the respondents failed to pay the crop insurance. Being aggrieved by the inaction of the respondents in 4 MGR,J WP_23625_21 paying 'e' crop insurance to the petitioners, the present writ petition is filed.
The 5th respondent - Joint Director of Agriculture, Krishna District, filed counter affidavit on his behalf and on behalf of the respondents 1 to 4 inter alia stating that the insurance claim of the petitioners/actual cultivators under Dr. YSR e-crop insurance scheme was paid to all the eligible petitioners as per G.O.Ms.No79. Five out of six petitioners have been paid crop insurance claim to a tune of Rs.24.01 lakhs, the details of which are as under:
Sl.No. Farmer Name and Aadhar Number Claim amount Date of father's name paid (Rs) payment by RTGS
1. Rayidi Sadasivarao, 451518751278 4,39,442/- 09.11.2021 S/o.Venkata Satyanarayana 2 Rayidi Sambasiva Rao, 737124711005 5,00,246/- 09.11.2021 S/o.Venkata Satyanarayana
3. Rayidi Venkata 858780038652 2,09,734/- 09.11.2021 Satyanarayana, S/o.Venkateswarlu
4. Gadde Srinivasa Rao, 789053598406 2,16,059/- 09.11.2021 S/o.Apparao
5. Rapala Krishna Rao, 381310906333 10,36,016/- 09.11.2021 S/o. Dasaiah
6. Kotaru 802169632440 - Rejected since Lakshminarayana, identified as non cultivator during S/o.Narasimharao verification Total 24,01,497/-
Dr.YSR free crop insurance scheme is applicable to actual cultivators only. The Government mentioned in the notification that 'all necessary 5 MGR,J WP_23625_21 safeguards will be taken (flagging of non-cultivators in e-crop) to ensure benefit of crop insurance to reach the actual cultivators. With a view to ensure Aadhar based payment reaches the right person, biometric authentication was mandated for coverage under crop insurance. As per notification, biometric Aadhar authentication is a one-time exercise for the cultivator, for all crops growing during Kharif 2020 at different locations across the State. Accordingly, facility has been provided for the cultivator to approach any of the Rythu Bharosa Kendrams spread across the State and complete the biometric authentication (Jan to 2 nd June 2021) for the e-crop booking. Since the biometric option was enabled across the State, the Department desired to have a close scrutiny of the key details like extent, crop to verify the correctness of the person whether he is an actual cultivator or not. Hence, instructions have been issued to the field functionaries for ground truthing of the key details of the farmers once again, and flag such cases, where the owner himself is not cultivating the land and not allowed to include the tenant's name in e-crop. Thus, necessary protective measures have been taken to ensure crop insurance claim goes to the right cultivator and not to the absentee land lords as intended by the Government and also not to mis-use the public money.
Most of the eligible claims of the farmers have already been paid and the details were given in the documents filed along with the counter. The e-crop data has to be finalized based on the ground proof verification. As a part of random verification, some errors were noticed and hence head office has issued orders for close scrutiny of the records to ensure correctness of data before making payment. Some of the records having suspicion have been referred to a special officer 6 MGR,J WP_23625_21 appointed by the Commissioner of Agriculture. Accordingly, the claims of the petitioners have been verified and the eligible petitioners were paid amounts even though belatedly due to purely technical problems. There is no discrimination in making payment of crop insurance claim to eligible cultivators whose registration is found to be valid. All the eligible claims have been paid to the Aadhar linked bank account through Real Time Governing Society [RTGS].
The petitioners filed reply stating that they are real cultivators. They were registered in the e-crop booking portal. They are small and marginal cultivators but their claim is rejected under vague presumption that they are not real cultivators; but who are real cultivators is not mentioned. The respondent authorities have not done any verification with respect to the cultivation of cotton crop by the petitioners and its failure. Only the respondents verified in respect of the claim which nvolved Ac.20.00 cents or more but not the petitioners claims. In the reply affidavit, petitioners have not specifically stated whether the five petitioners received the e-crop insurance as stated by the respondents in the counter.
Sri P. Prabhakar Rao, learned counsel for the petitioners, submits that the petitioners claim for payment of e-crop insurance has been rejected without there being any verification and evidence that they are not cultivators of the cotton crop in their lands. There is no such report by any authority and the same is not informed to the petitioners. Their claim is only rejected as they belong to opposition party.
Learned Assistant Government Pleader for Agriculture, while reiterating the averments of the counter, vehemently contended that on mere registration of the petitioners' names that they raised cotton crop 7 MGR,J WP_23625_21 in their respective lands in the e-panta portal does not entitle them to claim benefits of e-crop insurance scheme. The claims have to be cross checked and verified and authenticated by the authorities before payment of the insurance claim. In the verification in respect of claims of 42 farmers, claim of 17 farmers has been rejected, as, on verification it is found that they are not actually cultivating the land. As per the provisions of the scheme enumerated in G.O.Ms.No.79 only actual cultivators are entitled for payment of e-crop insurance. Already out of 6 petitioners, 5 petitioners were paid crop insurance and claim of the 6th petitioners was rejected on the ground that he was identified as non cultivators during the inspection. Petitioners are not entitled for any relief as prayed for in the writ petition.
Having considered the facts and circumstances of the case, submissions of the learned counsel and on perusal of the record this court found that the petitioners, who are small and marginal farmers, raised BT cotton crop in their respective extents of lands and registered the same in the e-crop digital portal and has also submitted their fingerprint authentication along with Aadhar details. The 1 st respondent notified crop failure in respect of Chandarlapadu Mandal of Krishna District. The petitioners belong to Kodavatikallu village of Chandarlapadu Mandal, Krishna District. Their names and cotton and turmeric crops raised in their respective extents of land were registered in the e-crop portal under Dr. YSR free crop insurance scheme as per the guidelines issued in G.O.Ms.No.79 dated 08.10.2020. As per the provisions of the said GO, all the cultivators growing notified crops in the notified areas and whose details were recorded through e-crop (approved after the social audit) and after successful Aadhar biometric 8 MGR,J WP_23625_21 authentication became eligible for coverage under crop insurance scheme and no separate enrollment required. Biometric Aadhar authentication is a one-time exercise for the cultivator, for all crops growing during Kharif 2020 at different locations across the State. All necessary safeguards will also be taken (flagging of non-cultivators in e- crop) to ensure benefit of crop insurance to reach the actual cultivators. Claim of the four petitioners for payment of crop insurance was rejected only on the ground that they are not actual cultivators but details of raising of BT cotton and extent is not denied by the respondent authorities. Rejection of the claim of the 6th petitioner is on the ground that on verification it is found that he is non cultivator; but no evidence is placed in support of their contention along with the counter affidavit. A perusal of the documents filed along with the counter reveals that vide File No.AGC02-21021/8/2021-Asst-Dir-Crop Insurance dated 06.10.2021 of the O/c C & DA, AP, Guntur, instructions were issued that a State Level team consisting DDA & AO from HOD and Districts are formed to examine the e-crop extents captured in e-crop during Kharif 2020, whose claim extent is above Ac.20.00 cents per single adhaar. Further, the list of records whose extent is lower than 20 acres and the claim amount exceeding Rs.5 lakhs also needs close verification by the teams. The DDA (Soil Conservation), Anakapalli, Visakhapatnam District, was nominated to Krishna District to verify the correctness of the e-crop data provided with ground reality and re-submit list along with the remarks against each record. He has verified 2578 records, which have been verified with land records and existing/current year e-crop booking from 21.10.2021 to 27.10.2021. Inspections were made in the concerned villages of Krishna District. In respect of Chandarlapadu Mandal in Krishna District, he verified 1223 records for which claim amount is 9 MGR,J WP_23625_21 Rs.8,84,66,791/- and rejected claim of 54 records for a claim of Rs.22,79,266/-. It is found that the verification is done in respect of the claims which are more than Rs.5.00 lakhs and claims in respect of more than Ac.20.00 cents per single Aadhar. It is also found that there is no verification of the records in respect of the claims of the petitioners before this Court as their insurance claim is in respect of less than Ac.20.00 cents and less than Rs.5.00 lakhs, as no evidence is placed before this Court. Though the petitioners by way of reply affidavit have not specifically denied the payment of insurance claim in respect of five petitioners out of six petitioners, no documentary evidence is produced by the respondents to show that the claim amounts have been paid in respect of four petitioners. In the absence of any verification in respect of the remaining petitioner viz., petitioner No.6 when the petitioners enrolled/registered their crops under Dr YSR free crop insurance scheme through e-panta portal, and in support of their claim placed e-crop booking details downloaded from the e-portal and their e-crop booking and their fingerprint authentication also not denied, the contention of the respondents that the 6th petitioner is not actual cultivator, without there being any supporting evidence or verification report, could not be countenanced. As per the Dr.YSR free crop insurance scheme enunciated under G.O.Ms.No.79 dated 08.10.2020, the petitioners are entitled for payment of crop insurance as their names are recorded in the e-portal and bio metric authentication is also taken. Rejection of the claim of the 6th petitioner is illegal, arbitrary and contrary to the guidelines issued in G.O.Ms.No.79. The petitioners submitted their representation dated 30.08.2021 to the respondents for payment of crop insurance and non consideration of the same is illegal and arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
10 MGR,J WP_23625_21 In view of the above discussion, Writ Petition is allowed. The respondents are directed to consider the petitioners representation dated 30.08.2021 and pay the crop insurance amount of Rs.1,83,433/- to the 6th petitioner. Since it is stated in the counter that the other petitioners viz., petitioners 1 to 5 were paid their respective claim amounts to their Aadhar linked bank account through RTGS, as extracted supra, which is not specifically denied by the said petitioners, if the same is not already paid, the respondents shall pay the amounts claimed by the said petitioners also now. The above exercise shall be completed within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. There shall be no order as to costs.
As a sequel, miscellaneous applications pending, if any, shall stand closed.
_______________________ JUSTICE M. GANGA RAO 06.07.2022 Vjl 11 MGR,J WP_23625_21 HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE M. GANGA RAO W.P.No.23625 of 2021 06.07.2022 Vjl