RTI for delayed PMFBY Fasal Bima claim (2026)

Sunitabai is a smallholder soybean farmer in Latur district, Maharashtra. She took a Kisan Credit Card loan for the Kharif 2025 crop, and the bank auto-deducted her share of the PMFBY premium — 2% of the Sum Insured of about ₹45,000 per hectare, roughly ₹900. The monsoon behaved well until August, when the rains failed during pod-formation. By October, the village knew the soybean yield was down. The block agriculture officer told her, “the crop-cutting experiments will decide the claim.”

Then silence. November passed. December passed. On 15 November 2025 the State uploaded Latur's Actual Yield (AY) data on the National Crop Insurance Portal. By 5 January 2026 — 51 days later — no claim money had reached her bank account. Other farmers in her gram panchayat were in the same queue. The bank said “ask the insurance company.” The insurance company's toll-free line said “ask the agriculture officer.” The agriculture officer said “the portal shows pending.”

Sunitabai's situation is not rare. Across India, PMFBY has paid out over ₹1.5 lakh crore in claims cumulatively, yet every season a slice of admissible claims sits unpaid past the deadline, with no one willing to say why. The paper trail — the crop-cutting experiment (CCE) record, the threshold yield notification, the Actual Yield uploaded, the claim calculation worksheet, the State subsidy release order — exists somewhere. The Right to Information Act, 2005 lets you demand that it be shown to you. This guide shows you exactly how, using only facts verified against the government's own February 2025 Revised Operational Guidelines.

The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is a Central Sector Scheme launched on 13 January 2016, replacing the earlier Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme and the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme. It is implemented by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Krishi Bhavan, New Delhi-110001. The Department's website is agriwelfare.gov.in.

One correction worth knowing: many older documents, and even the February 2025 Revised Operational Guidelines PDF, still carry the legacy name “Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW).” That is because the Cooperation division was hived off into a separate Ministry of Cooperation in July 2021. The live department you address today is DA&FW. Use the current name in your RTI so the application is not misrouted.

PMFBY is not run under a standalone Act of Parliament. The binding rules — premium caps, claim timelines, penal interest, grievance handling — live in the PMFBY Operational Guidelines (Revised), February 2025, hosted on the government S3WaaS infrastructure. When you cite a timeline or a penalty in your RTI, you cite these Guidelines (by paragraph number), not a statute. The Right to Information Act, 2005 is the statute you invoke to compel disclosure of the records.

The scheme covers food and oilseeds crops, annual commercial and annual horticultural crops, and, on a pilot basis, perennial horticultural crops. The farmer's share of the actuarial premium is capped at 2% of Sum Insured for Kharif food and oilseeds crops, 1.5% for Rabi food and oilseeds, and 5% for annual commercial and annual horticultural crops — whichever is less than the actuarial rate. The balance is paid as Normal Premium Subsidy, shared 50:50 between Centre and State in general states, and 90:10 Centre:State in North-East and Himalayan states. This subsidy structure is the reason a State's failure to release its share can hold up your claim — a point we return to below.

To ask a sharp question, you need to know how a PMFBY claim moves from a standing crop to money in your bank. The Revised Operational Guidelines (February 2025) lay down a seasonality discipline with clear hand-offs:

1. Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs): State Agriculture or Revenue department officials, under the supervision of the District Level Monitoring Committee (DLMC, chaired by the District Collector), conduct CCEs in sampled villages to measure the Actual Yield (AY). ATMA and Krishi Vigyan Kendras are not the primary CCE agencies — the State Agriculture Department is.
2. AY upload: The State uploads the AY data for each notified unit (typically a village panchayat or a cluster of villages) on the National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) at pmfby.gov.in, within about one month of completing the CCEs.
3. Auto-approval: The portal auto-approves the yield data within about one week, triggering claim calculation.
4. Claim calculation: The empanelled insurance company calculates the claim for each notified unit, comparing the AY against the Threshold Yield (the average yield of the last seven years, or a notified guaranteed yield). Where AY is below Threshold Yield, the shortfall is paid.
5. Payment: The insurance company must pay admissible claims within two weeks of claim calculation / auto-approval. Payment is credited directly to the farmer's bank account (loanee farmers via the bank; non-loanee farmers directly).
6. Penal interest: Under Para 16.9 of the Revised Guidelines, if admissible claims are not paid within the stipulated cutoff, penal interest at 12% per annum is payable on the pending amount beyond 30 days of uploading AY on the portal (or providing it in soft copy by the State), subject to release of applicable subsidy by the State Government. The penalty is passed on to the beneficiary farmers, not absorbed by the Technology Fund. It is auto-calculated on NCIP.

So the practical outer bound is roughly 30 to 45 days from AY upload — not the loose “60 to 90 days post-harvest” that older articles and the previous version of this page carried. The trigger for the 12% penalty is the AY-upload date, not the harvest date. Get that date into your RTI question.

Two changes have reshaped the leverage you have when a PMFBY claim is delayed.

First — the February 2025 Revised Operational Guidelines tightened the penalty clause. Para 16.9 now ties the 12% penal interest explicitly to the AY-upload date and requires it to be auto-calculated on NCIP. Annexure-2 (the Performance Evaluation Matrix) reinforces the same trigger for the insurer. The old ambiguity — “60 days from yield assessment” — is gone. This matters because farmers previously could not pin down when the clock started. Now they can: ask for the AY-upload date in your RTI, and the 30-day clock is fixed.

Second — from Kharif 2025-26, States must open escrow accounts and deposit their premium share in advance. This reform targets the single biggest excuse insurers had for late payment: “the State had not released its subsidy, so the Para 16.9 caveat `subject to release of applicable subsidy by State Govt.` shields us.” With escrow accounts prefunded, that shield is narrowing. If your State has already released its share (you can ask, in your RTI, for the date and amount of the State subsidy release order for your district and season), the insurer can no longer hide behind that caveat.

The Krishi Rakshak Portal and Helpline (KRPH) is the official grievance channel: toll-free 14447. You can also file grievances on the pmfby.gov.in grievance module, and escalate to CPGRAMS at pgportal.gov.in under the Ministry “Agriculture and Farmers Welfare” / Department “Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.” These are not RTI — they are parallel grievance routes — but they create a dated paper trail that strengthens your RTI questions.

You will usually file two applications — one to the public custodian of the CCE records, one to the State-level nodal authority — and a third to AIC if it is your insurer. The reason: a private empanelled insurer (ICICI Lombard, HDFC ERGO, IFFCO Tokio, Bajaj Allianz, Reliance General, Universal Sompo, and others) is not cleanly answerable under RTI in the way a Central PSU is. The cleanest route is to file to the District Agriculture Officer / DLMC and the State Nodal Agency for PMFBY (State Agriculture Department), because these are unambiguously public authorities and they hold — or can be compelled to produce — the CCE records, threshold-yield notifications, claim calculation worksheets, and State subsidy release orders that show whether the insurer is at fault.

Step 1 — Identify the public authorities.

1. District level: The District Agriculture Officer (DAO) / District Level Monitoring Committee (DLMC), chaired by the District Collector. This office holds the CCE records and the village-level yield data for your notified unit.
2. State level: The State Nodal Agency for PMFBY in your State Agriculture Department (the SLCCCI / State Level Coordination Committee on Crop Insurance is the apex state body). This office holds the threshold-yield notifications, the AY-upload dates, and the State subsidy release orders.
3. Insurer level: If your insurer is the Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd (AIC) — a Central Public Sector Undertaking under the administrative control of the Ministry of Finance and operational supervision of MoA&FW, listed as a public authority on rtionline.gov.in — file a third application online through the Central RTI portal (rtionline.gov.in). AIC is unambiguously a public authority under RTI. For a private insurer, route through the DAO/DLMC and State Nodal Agency.

Step 2 — Prepare your questions. Ask for specific, dated records, not vague “status.” Six strong sample questions:

1. “Furnish the date, village, and plot number of the Crop Cutting Experiment conducted for my notified unit (village _, gram panchayat _, tehsil _, district _) for [crop], Kharif/Rabi [year], and the measured yield recorded in the CCE.”
2. “Furnish the Threshold Yield notified and the Actual Yield uploaded on the National Crop Insurance Portal for my notified unit for [crop], [season], [year], and the date of AY upload on NCIP.”
3. “Furnish the claim calculation worksheet showing the claim amount computed for my notified unit, and the date of claim calculation / auto-approval on NCIP.”
4. “Furnish the reasons for non-payment of my admissible claim beyond 30 days of AY upload, and the date and amount of claim payable along with 12% per annum penal interest accrued under Para 16.9 of the PMFBY Operational Guidelines (Revised, February 2025).”
5. “Furnish the date and amount of the State Government subsidy share released to the insurer for [district], [crop], [season], [year], and the escrow account credit date, if any.”
6. “Furnish the age-wise pendency of PMFBY claims for [crop], [district], [season] — number of claims pending 0-30 days, 30-60 days, 60-90 days, and beyond 90 days of AY upload, and the total claim amount in each bucket.”

Step 3 — Use the right form and fee.

1. For the State applications (DAO/DLMC and State Nodal Agency), use the RTI application format under Section 6(1) of the RTI Act, 2005. The fee is Rs.10 in most states (BPL applicants are exempt). Pay by Indian Postal Order, court-fee stamp, or cash against receipt. Some states allow online filing through the state RTI portal. Check your state's RTI Rules before filing; see RTI Fees by State and Online Portal Directory (2026) for the state-wise fee and mode of payment.
2. For the AIC application, file online at rtionline.gov.in and pay Rs.10 by debit/credit card or UPI. AIC is a Central public authority, so the Central Rs.10 fee applies. See RTI for Beginners: Everything You Need to Know Before Filing Your for the step-by-step online filing process.

Step 4 — Submit and keep proof. File by hand at the PIO's office and take a stamped receiving copy, or send by registered post and keep the acknowledgement, or file online and save the registration number. Proof of submission is your protection if the reply is delayed.

Step 5 — Wait 30 days. The PIO must reply within 30 days of receiving your application under Section 7(1) of the RTI Act (48 hours where the information concerns life or liberty, which crop-insurance queries normally do not, though a starvation-edge argument has been tried).

Step 6 — Draft your letter the easy way. You do not have to write from scratch. Use the AI RTI Drafter at https://righttoinformation.wiki/tools/ai-rti-draft-app.html — paste your crop, district, season, and insurer, and it structures the questions for you. To check whether the PIO's reply actually answers your question (or evades it), run the reply through the PIO Reply Checker at https://righttoinformation.wiki/tools/pio-reply-checker-app.html before deciding whether to appeal.

1. A photocopy of your PMFBY policy / coverage confirmation (or the bank's loan document showing the auto-deducted premium for loanee farmers).
2. Your land record — Khasra / Khata / 7/12 extract showing the insured plot.
3. Bank passbook front page showing the account number where the claim should have been credited.
4. The crop loss intimation you filed (if a localised calamity such as hailstorm, inundation, cloudburst, or landslide hit your plot — these must be intimated within 72 hours via the Crop Insurance app, portal, helpline 14447, bank, or DAO).
5. Any grievance reference number from KRPH (14447) or pmfby.gov.in.
6. The Rs.10 RTI fee proof (IPO / court-fee stamp / online receipt).
7. If you are Below Poverty Line, a BPL certificate — the RTI fee is waived.

1. Filing only at the insurance company. For a private empanelled insurer, a direct RTI is legally murky — no confirmed Central Information Commission order declares PMFBY private insurers as public authorities under Section 2(h)(d)(ii). File at the DAO/DLMC and State Nodal Agency, which are unambiguously public authorities and hold the records.
2. Asking for “claim status.” That gets you a one-line “pending” reply. Ask for named, dated records — CCE date, AY-upload date, claim worksheet, subsidy release order — each of which pins down a specific obligation.
3. Missing the AY-upload date. The 12% penal interest clock starts on the AY-upload date, not the harvest date. If you do not ask for that date, you cannot prove the 30-day trigger.
4. Late loss intimation for localised calamities. For hailstorm, landslide, inundation, cloudburst, and on-account losses, intimation beyond 72 hours is a top rejection reason. The insurer will cite it; your RTI cannot undo a late intimation, but it can expose whether the 72-hour rule was applied uniformly.
5. Ignoring the State subsidy angle. Para 16.9's “subject to release of applicable subsidy by State Govt.” is the insurer's shield. Ask for the State subsidy release date and escrow credit date; if the State has released its share, the shield falls and the 12% penalty is owed.
6. Confusing the legacy department name. The Guidelines PDF says “DAC&FW.” The live department is DA&FW. Address current names to avoid misrouting.
7. Forgetting the first appeal. Most citizens stop at no-reply. A First Appeal under Section 19(1) within 30 days of the deadline is free in most states and moves a stuck file faster than a fresh RTI.

To,
The Public Information Officer,
Office of the District Agriculture Officer / District Level Monitoring Committee,
[District], [State]

Subject: Application under Section 6(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 —
         delayed PMFBY crop insurance claim for [crop], [season] [year]

Sir / Madam,

I am a farmer insured under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana for
[crop], [season] [year], in village _____, gram panchayat _____,
tehsil _____, district _____. My insured plot Khasra no. is _____ and
my Sum Insured is ₹_____ per hectare. My admissible claim has not been
credited to my bank account beyond 30 days of upload of Actual Yield
on the National Crop Insurance Portal.

I seek the following information under Section 6(1) of the RTI Act, 2005:

1. The date, village, and plot number of the Crop Cutting Experiment
   conducted for my notified unit for [crop], [season] [year], and the
   measured yield recorded in the CCE.

2. The Threshold Yield notified and the Actual Yield uploaded on NCIP
   for my notified unit, with the date of AY upload on the portal.

3. The claim calculation worksheet showing the claim amount computed
   for my notified unit, and the date of claim calculation / auto-
   approval on NCIP.

4. The reasons for non-payment of my admissible claim beyond 30 days
   of AY upload, the date and amount of claim payable, and the 12%
   per annum penal interest accrued under Para 16.9 of the PMFBY
   Operational Guidelines (Revised, February 2025).

5. The date and amount of the State Government subsidy share released
   to the insurer for [district], [crop], [season] [year], and the
   escrow account credit date.

6. The age-wise pendency of PMFBY claims for [crop], [district],
   [season] [year] — pending 0-30, 30-60, 60-90, and beyond 90 days
   of AY upload — with the number of claims and total amount in each.

As required under Section 10 of the RTI Act, I do not require the
personal information of any third party; I seek only the records
pertaining to my claim and the aggregated pendency data.

I enclose the RTI fee of Rs.10 by Indian Postal Order / court-fee
stamp / cash receipt.

If the information is not held by your office, I request that the
application be transferred under Section 6(3) of the RTI Act to the
public authority that holds it, with intimation to me.

Yours faithfully,

[Name]
[Address]
[Bank account number — for cross-verification]
[Mobile number]
[Date]

For the AIC application (if AIC is your insurer), file the same letter online at rtionline.gov.in selecting “Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd” as the public authority, and pay the Rs.10 fee online.

There is no confirmed Central Information Commission order declaring private PMFBY insurers as public authorities under Section 2(h)(d)(ii) of the RTI Act. The safer, legally clean route is to file against the District Agriculture Officer / DLMC and the State Nodal Agency for PMFBY, which are unambiguously public authorities and hold the CCE records, threshold-yield notifications, and subsidy release orders. If your insurer is the Agriculture Insurance Company of India (AIC) — a Central PSU — you can file directly at rtionline.gov.in.

Under Para 16.9 of the PMFBY Operational Guidelines (Revised, February 2025), the 12% per annum penal interest applies on admissible pending claims beyond 30 days of uploading Actual Yield on the National Crop Insurance Portal (or providing it in soft copy by the State). The key date is the AY-upload date, not the harvest date or the “yield assessment” date. Ask for the AY-upload date in your RTI to fix the clock.

Not always. Para 16.9 adds the caveat “subject to release of applicable subsidy by State Govt.” If the State has not released its premium subsidy share, the insurer can argue the delay is not its fault. From Kharif 2025-26, States must open escrow accounts and deposit their share in advance, which narrows this shield. In your RTI, ask for the date and amount of the State subsidy release — if it has been released, the shield falls and the penalty is owed.

Under Section 7(1) of the RTI Act, 2005, the Public Information Officer must reply within 30 days of receiving your application (48 hours where the information concerns the life or liberty of a person). Crop-insurance claim queries are generally treated as 30-day matters.

File a First Appeal under Section 19(1) of the RTI Act with the First Appellate Authority in the same department, within 30 days of the expiry of the reply deadline (or of receiving an unsatisfactory reply). The FAA must decide within 30 days, extendable to 45. If the FAA also fails, file a Second Appeal under Section 19(3) with the State Information Commission (for state applications) or the Central Information Commission (for AIC). There is no fee for a second appeal to the Central Information Commission. To compute your exact deadlines, use the Timeline Calculator at https://righttoinformation.wiki/tools/timeline-calculator-app.html.

Visit pmfby.gov.in, use the “Crop Insurance” mobile app, or ask your bank (for loanee farmers, the insurer is assigned to your loan account). Your block agriculture officer also has the district-wise insurer allotment list. Once you know the insurer, you know whether to file a direct AIC application online or route through the DAO/DLMC and State Nodal Agency.

For localised calamities — hailstorm, landslide, inundation, cloudburst — and for on-account losses, the farmer must intimate crop loss within 72 hours through the Crop Insurance app, the pmfby.gov.in portal, the KRPH helpline 14447, the bank, or the District Agriculture Officer. Late intimation is one of the top rejection reasons. Your RTI cannot reverse a late intimation, but it can expose whether the rule was applied consistently across farmers in your notified unit.

Yes. The Krishi Rakshak Portal and Helpline (KRPH) is toll-free at 14447. You can also file a grievance on the pmfby.gov.in grievance module, and escalate to CPGRAMS at pgportal.gov.in under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. These are not RTI routes, but they create a dated grievance trail that strengthens your RTI questions.

Yes. Any citizen can file RTI — you do not need to be a loanee farmer. Non-loanee farmers who paid the premium directly to the insurer or through a Common Service Centre have the same right to the CCE records and claim calculation worksheet. Attach your premium receipt and policy confirmation instead of the bank loan document.

PMFBY is optional for States, and about 23 States and UTs are currently implementing it. If your State has withdrawn or not notified the scheme for a season, no PMFBY claim arises for that season — but you can still file RTI to the State Agriculture Department asking for the notification status and the reasons for non-implementation, which is information held by a public authority.

1. Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare: [agriwelfare.gov.in](https://agriwelfare.gov.in/en/who)
2. PMFBY Operational Guidelines (Revised, February 2025) — Para 13.1 (premium caps), Para 16.9 (12% penal interest), Annexure-2 (Performance Evaluation Matrix): [cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in PDF](https://cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s30fe473396242072e84af286632d3f0ff/uploads/2025/02/202502191018667317.pdf)
3. National Crop Insurance Portal (PMFBY): [pmfby.gov.in](https://pmfby.gov.in/)
4. Krishi Rakshak Portal and Helpline (KRPH) — toll-free 14447: [agriwelfare.gov.in](https://agriwelfare.gov.in/)
5. CPGRAMS — Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System: [pgportal.gov.in](https://pgportal.gov.in)
6. Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd (AIC) — Central PSU, public authority on rtionline.gov.in: [aicofindia.com](https://www.aicofindia.com/)
7. Central RTI online portal: [rtionline.gov.in](https://rtionline.gov.in)
8. DA&FW Annual Report 2024-25 (scheme scale context): [agriwelfare.gov.in](https://www.agriwelfare.gov.in/Documents/HomeWhatsNew/AR_Eng_2024_25.pdf)
9. Right to Information Act, 2005 — Sections 6(1), 6(3), 7(1), 10, 19(1) (statute)

1. RTI for PMFBY crop insurance — sibling template
2. RTI for insurance claim delay (2026)
3. Practical guide: PMFBY claim not paid
4. Insurance company closed your grievance early
5. RTI for beginners — how to file online
6. RTI fees by state
7. The RTI Act, 2005

This guide was written by volunteers who verified every legal and financial claim against the government's own February 2025 Revised Operational Guidelines before publishing. If it helped you move a stuck PMFBY claim, consider sharing it with your gram panchayat or farmers' group.

Last reviewed: 4 July 2026.