Demand for fixing time limit for payment of crop insurance amount in Rajya Sabha

The issue of timely payment of compensation to farmers for their damaged crops under the 'Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana' due to natural disasters was raised in the Rajya Sabha on Friday. Congress's Rajiv Shukla, while raising the issue during zero hour, said that farmers are being paid less than Rs 10 in the name of crop insurance. He said that in many cases, this amount is only Rs 3.03. He said that under this scheme, farmers have to go through a complicated process to get the payment and in many cases, the payment is denied citing one or the other reason.

Mr. Shukla said that the most surprising thing is that even this meager amount is not being paid to the farmers on time, so his demand is that a fixed time limit should be set for the payment of crop insurance amount. Bharatiya Janata Party's Brij Lal demanded an increase in the gallantry award given to paramilitary personnel for bravery. He said that the award money for the Presidential Medal for bravery was increased from Rs 3,000 to Rs 6,000, but the award money for the Police Medal for Gallantry has not been increased from Rs 2,000 for a long time. He said that this amount should be increased to Rs 4,000.

Aam Aadmi Party's Sushmita Dev and Rashtriya Janata Dal's Sanjay Yadav raised the issue of collusion between private hospitals and health insurance companies, saying that they are exploiting consumers and not paying their full claim amount. They demanded strict laws to solve this problem. Bahujan Samaj Party's Ramji demanded a ban on adulteration of food items, use of chemicals on fruits and use of harmful chemicals to ripen them. He said that these chemicals have a negative impact on health, due to which people are falling ill.

Bharatiya Janata Party's Sanjay Seth demanded that the tourist places in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, be nominated for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List. His party's Babubhai Desai said that there is a need to formulate a comprehensive and long-term program policy to deal with the increasing cases of skin cancer in the country. He said that diagnostic centers should also be set up at the district level across the country for this purpose. Bharatiya Janata Party's Surennder Nagar demanded that the work on the metro project in Greater Noida West be started soon.

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray)'s Priyanka Chaturvedi questioned the orders given by the judiciary regarding the comments made by the judiciary on the chapter related to corruption in the judiciary in the NCERT book and the team that prepared the syllabus. Trinamool Congress's Derek O'Brien raised the issue of rising gas cylinder prices due to the crisis in West Asia, saying that the cylinder which was priced at Rs 420 in 2014 has now become Rs 914. He said sarcastically that the central government is only expert in making good slogans, but the reality is something else.