Bhubaneswar, July 25: Oriental Insurance Company has assured state vigilance department of its full cooperation in unearthing the scam relating to the insurance of a cow for Rs 27 lakh under a central government sponsored scheme.

“They will depute a senior official of the company from Patna to cooperate with the departmental investigation,” said a vigilance department official. The cow had been insured by the Oriental Insurance Company under the central government funded scheme. The senior manager of the company, who has been arrested by the vigilance department, was identified as Shyama Sunder Mohapatra. He is now out on bail.

“We will not give permission to the insurance authorities to reinstate Mohapatra or any other officers involved in the scam till the inquiry is over,” the vigilance official said.

In order to promote the livestock sector, the central government has introduced a scheme for livestock insurance on a pilot basis during 2005-06 in hundred districts across the country. The project is still operational in nine districts of the state. Under the scheme, a farmer pays a certain amount to insure his cow and a matching amount is paid by the state. The money that the state spends on insurance is supposed to be reimbursed by the Centre.

However, in this particular case in Sambalpur, no real cow was insured. It was a creation of the some corrupt officials who succeeded in fudging the papers. The cow was insured for Rs 27 lakh against the normal sum of Rs 15,000. The government also paid a premium of Rs 3.80 lakh. All this was done with the collusion of insurance company, Orissa Livestock Resources Development Society (OLRDS) and veterinary officials. When the vigilance department got wind of it, the company returned the money to the OLRDS’ account. The OLRDS has been entrusted with the responsibility to carry out the insurance programme on behalf of the state government.

Coming under pressure, the OLRDS has blacklisted the concerned company and decided not to allow it to participate in its insurance scheme in future.

Animal husbandry minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi said: “We will review the functioning of the OLRDS. The state government will ensure that the poor farmers are not cheated. Corruption will not be tolerated.”

Chief executive officer of OLRDS Sanat Mishra said: “We have floated a new tender to select an insurance company to implement the scheme for the financial year 2011-12.”