UPA to be blamed for agrarian crisis: Government

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government on Wednesday countered the Opposition charge that private insurers were benefitting under the new crop insurance scheme, saying it was the Congress-led UPA which had first allowed private firms in 2007.

Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said the government was alive to the problems of the farmers and was making efforts to resolve them. The minister, replying to a debate in the Rajya Sabha on the agrarian crisis, said if the previous governments had taken adequate steps, the farmers’ condition would not have worsened. He listed the measures that the government had taken over the last three years in the agriculture sector and spoke at length about the various schemes.  

However, even as the minister was speaking, the Opposition parties expressed dissatisfaction over his reply and staged a walkout. Earlier, the hour-long reply was repeatedly disrupted by the Opposition members. Before leaving the House, Congress leader Anand Sharma said the minister, instead of speaking about the past, should spell out what the government was going to do to end the plight of farmers.

“I want to assure farmers that we are addressing their problems. Along with state governments and the policies of the Prime Minister, we are addressing the challenges and also succeeding,” the minister stated, despite the walkout by the opposition.

Responding to Opposition charge that private insurance companies were making a profit under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY), the minister asked, “who brought the private companies” in the scheme? It was in 2007 that private insurers were permitted in insurance schemes by the then UPA government. He said during the UPA government, only one public sector insurance company was involved as against five from the private sector. However, in the new PMFBY, launched in 2015, the number of public insurers has increased to five. Singh added that state governments have also been asked to set up their insurance companies, and Gujarat and Haryana have already expressed interest.

Responding to concerns fromn sevaral MPs that the incidents of farmers’ suicide have seen an increase, Singh said the number has come down to 11,458 in 2016 from 12,602 in the previous year. He was citing the data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).