Farmers being neglected under Nitish govt: Sushil Modi

Patna, Jul 5: Bihar Opposition party BJP today alleged the Nitish government has neither identified any insurance company nor hold meeting with banks so far to implement the crop insurance scheme thus "depriving" farmers of the benefit.

"The Central scheme is only till July 31 this year and even as on today (July 5) the Nitish Kumar government has neither identified an insurance company nor held meeting with banks to ask them to provide loan to farmers so that they could avail of the crop insurance scheme," senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi told reporters after his weekly 'Janata Darbar'.

Under the 'Pradhan Mantri Crop Insurance Scheme', farmers have to pay a nominal amount of the sum insured for their crops.

Sushil Modi slammed the alliance government for abandoning special agriculture cabinet - a forum of officers of several departments for addressing issues related to agriculture - of the NDA era and not including agriculture in the Chief Minister's "seven resolves".

More than 80 per cent of the state's population depends on agriculture which is not getting any attention in the Nitish government, he alleged. He said the state government has not identified kharif crops so far for benefits to farmers. The BJP leader said Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh wrote to the state government on the issue but to no avail.

"It seems the Nitish Kumar government is intentionally doing this so that the Union government of Narendra Modi do not get credit for initiating beneficial programmes for farmers," he alleged.

Sushil Modi praised Union government for producing urea coated with neem to check its diversion to chemical industries "which was a booming business earlier". The Modi government by lowering prices of fertilisers has provided benefits of about Rs 4,500 crore to farmers, he claimed.

PTI