Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had openly expressed his displeasure with the condition of the state bearing 49 per cent premium cost of the scheme, with the other 49 per cent borne by the Centre. (File)
The Bihar government has launched a scheme — “Bihar Rajya Fasal Sahayta Yojana” — to provide financial assistance to farmers for crop damage, doing away with the Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). The move has come just a day before the talks between NDA constituents in Bihar, where the issue of seat-sharing for 2019 Lok Sabha polls is expected to be high on agenda.
Cooperative Department’s Principal Secretary Atul Prasad clarified that it is an assistance scheme and not an insurance scheme, news agency PTI reported. The scheme will be implemented from Kharif 2018, he said. He also alleged that the earlier scheme benefited the insurance companies more than the farmers.
Unlike PMFBY where farmers had to pay a premium for their crops to crop insurance companies (PSUs here), they will not have to pay anything from their pocket under this scheme. Rather, the farmers will be able to avail the benefits if they incur crop damage due to natural calamities.
Bihar had been wary of PMFBY ever since it was launched in 2016. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had openly expressed his displeasure with the condition of the state bearing 49 per cent premium cost of the scheme, 49 per cent borne by the Centre and the beneficiaries have to pay the remaining two per cent. Stating Bihar’s inability to release the cost, Nitish had remarked that the scheme should be renamed as “PM-CM farmer insurance scheme”. His remarks were condemned by BJP, which was the main opposition in Bihar that time.
The state, however, adopted the scheme later though on a trial basis. Citing the figures of Kharif 2016, Atul Prasad said both the state and the central governments provided Rs 495 crore each as premium besides two per cent of the premium given by farmers under PMFBY, but only Rs 221 crore was paid by insurance companies as crop damage in the state. The state government did not even get back the amount what it invested as premium amount for crop insurance, he said.
The June 7 meeting between NDA constituents in Bihar is being seen as a show of unity ahead of 2019 polls. Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi has denied any tiff between BJP and JDU. There are speculations that JDU might press for a seat-sharing arrangement based on its strength in Bihar Assembly.