Union Government Seeks Action Report on UP Crop Insurance Scam

Centre Seeks Detailed Report as UP Crop Insurance Scam Triggers Disciplinary Alarm

The widening exposure of irregularities under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and the Restructured Weather-Based Crop Insurance Scheme in Uttar Pradesh has pushed the Union government into decisive action mode. The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare has formally sought a comprehensive report from the state, signalling that accountability will extend beyond field-level arrests to systemic failures within government departments and insurance oversight.

According to officials familiar with the communication, the Centre has asked for a granular account of how verification mechanisms broke down, which officials were responsible at each stage, and what corrective and punitive steps have been initiated so far. The request follows the surfacing of large-scale manipulation in crop insurance claims, first detected in Mahoba and Jhansi, and later found to have echoes across multiple districts including Mathura, Farrukhabad, Jalaun and Fatehpur.

The demand for answers has reportedly unsettled both the Agriculture and Revenue departments in the state. Senior officers say the Ministry is no longer treating the episode as a localised fraud but as an institutional failure involving land record verification, crop inspection, and claim approval processes. Internal discussions have intensified as departments attempt to establish where procedural safeguards collapsed and why red flags were ignored for successive seasons.

District magistrates across affected regions have been instructed to submit time-bound reports detailing field inspections, beneficiary verification, and the role of subordinate officials. While Mahoba’s district administration has already forwarded its findings to the state government, reports from several other districts remain pending, prompting reminders and escalation. Officials indicated that those found to have enabled or overlooked fraudulent claims could face departmental action, suspension, or criminal prosecution depending on the severity of lapses established.

Investigators have also begun examining the conduct of insurance companies involved in the schemes. During a recent review meeting with Union Ministry officials, questions were raised over delays in lodging FIRs against insurers and their agents, despite mounting evidence of collusion. Statements recorded during inquiries suggest that intermediaries linked to insurance firms actively facilitated false claims, sometimes recovering portions of the payout from beneficiaries after disbursement.

Field verification has revealed some of the most startling distortions in the system. Claims were allegedly processed on land parcels that included rivers, railway tracks, ponds, barren stretches and government-owned property. In at least one instance, insurance was taken out on land belonging to a sitting Member of Parliament by unrelated individuals, underscoring how detached the approval process had become from ground realities.

So far, more than 20 arrests have been made in Mahoba alone, with additional FIRs registered in Jhansi. The state has constituted three-member committees at the tehsil level to physically verify land use and crop status, while parallel probes are underway in other districts where suspicious claim patterns have emerged. Officials say the investigation’s scope is expanding as data from multiple seasons is re-examined.

Policy experts note that the episode illustrates how welfare schemes can become vulnerable when checks remain fragmented and accountability diffused across departments and private actors. Robust frameworks for scrutiny, reconciliation and independent review—principles central to auditing services in india—are increasingly seen as essential to prevent such systemic manipulation, particularly in programmes involving large-scale public funds and decentralised execution.

For now, the Centre’s message to the state machinery is unambiguous: failures in oversight will be examined end to end, and responsibility will be fixed accordingly. The findings of the consolidated reports are expected to determine not just disciplinary outcomes, but also future reforms in how crop insurance schemes are monitored and enforced.