TG govt ‘renews’ Rythu Bima, tweaks eligibility rules

Hyderabad: The state government has ‘renewed’ the Rythu Bima scheme for 2025-2026, with the last date for farmers to submit fresh applications for the scheme ending on August 12. Meanwhile, the government going ahead with its plans for compiling data of new beneficiaries and tweaking rules.

Rythu Bima, an insurance scheme, is meant to provide financial support to families of farmers who die unexpectedly. The current policy expired on August 13.

“More than two lakh applications have been received from new beneficiaries of Rythu Bima and some of them were rejected due to various reasons”, officials told ‘The Hans India’. If everything goes fine, about 48 lakh farmers, including the fresh applicants, will be eligible to get Rs 5 lakh life insurance cover under the scheme. The applications will be considered from the farmers who had registered their lands in Bhu Bharati and CCLA (Chief Commissioner of Land Administration).

Secretary to Agriculture Department M Raghunandan Rao has instructed all the department officials, mainly Agriculture Officers (AOs), to consider applications from farmers who own lands up to 5 acres only. “The farmers’ insurance scheme will be applicable to only those who possess 5 acres of land”, officials said.

The Agriculture Officers conducted field verification before shortlisting the new beneficiaries. All the old beneficiaries were asked to submit applications for renewal and those are being uploaded on Rythu Bima portal.

Officials said that the authorities were verifying the land documents in Bhu Bharathi and CCLA as the government has mandated that only farmers who registered their lands in the two official portals would be considered eligible to avail of the scheme benefit. The new guidelines also state that farmers who own lands in more than one village are eligible for one insurance policy for the entire family.

Complicating matters for the coming year, the Agriculture Department has been constrained to write a letter to the finance wing seeking requisite funds to help pay the insurance premium to the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) in one go. For, the insurance company is not accepting the government’s request to be allowed to pay the premium amount in installments due to financial crisis.

According to one estimate, the scheme requires around Rs. 1,500 crore this year, up from last year’s Rs. 1,477 crore premiums for 41 lakh farmers.

Officials said that the Finance Department should provide adequate funds to pay the premium amount of Rs 1,500 crore in one go to prevent hurdles for beneficiary farmers in availing of the scheme benefit.