Congress boycott question hour in Gujarat assembly, stage walk out on crop insurance issue

Gandhinagar: Main opposition Congress today boycotted the question hour in Gujarat Assembly and walked out of the house alleging that the BJP government in the state was trying to cover-up the insurance companies which were not paying crop insurance to the farmers despite taking hefty premium amount under the Pradhanmantri Crop Insurance Scheme.

Congress MLA’s led by Deputy leader of their legislature party Shailesh Parmar also shouted slogans like ‘provide crop insurance to the farmers’ inside and outside of the house during and after the boycott of the question hour.

Deputy leader of the Congress legislature party in the assembly Shailesh Parmar later told newsmen that a total premium of Rs 5863 crore has been paid by the Gujarat farmers this year but so far only two of them in Banaskatha district have got the insurance money.

‘Today during the question hour when our question regarding crops insurance was being answered, the attitude of the government/minister looked like saving and covering up the insurance companies and also the chief minister present in the house did not intervene when the speaker hastily took another question. Though we can’t question this behaviour of the chair yet we clearly felt that the CM could have intervened in this question of high importance pertaining to lakhs of farmers across the 18000 villages in the state,’ Parmar said.

He said that the government has accepted in the house that the insurance companies have made a profit of over Rs 3500 crore but it was not bothered about the farmers.

Parmar alleged that the government was trying to save the insurance companies because these had nexus with people from the ruling BJP . It was afraid of getting exposed.

Govt trying all-out for payment to farmers under crop insurance scheme , Congress walk-out a guise: Faldu

Gandhinagar: Gujarat Agriculture Minister R C Faldu today said that the state government was trying all out to ensure that the farmers in the state get the crop damage related payments from insurance companies.

He alleged that main opposition Congress which today boycotted the question hour and walked out of the assembly had nothing to do with farmer’s interests but it had done so to avoid the embarrassment the party would have to face due to the ‘false’ allegations leveled by its leader in the house (leader of opposition) Paresh Dhanani in connection with the tablet purchase by the state government.

Talking to newsman in the assembly premises here Faldu said that despite a good yield of agri produces last year, the state government had pressurized the insurance companies to pay Rs 2776 crore of insurance money to the farmers in the state. ‘This time also we are making efforts for it. The government has so far 13 rounds of meeting with the crop insurance companies. I want to make it clear that the government was not there to cover-up the companies. The farmers who have suffered damages due to non-seasonal rain and other listed calamities would get their dues,’ he said.

He said that while he was answering the congress member’s question regarding crop insurance issue, the party MLA Lalit Kagathara started interrupting for no reason. The question was of importance to the state but the party was seemingly not interested in it. ‘Rather we felt that the party was intentionally trying to find a reason to walk out as it was not willing to face embarrassment in the house due to the false allegation’s of its leader Dhanani who had yesterday utterly wrongly alleged that the government had purchased tablets for distribution at a rate of Rs 6600 a piece while the real price in the market was Rs 1400 only,’ he alleged.

The Agriculture Minister said that even last year Congress had alleged that no corp insurance money was being paid to the farmers but the government ultimately made the companies pay Rs 2276 crore to farmers.

DeshGujarat