West Bengal drops 'Pradhan Mantri' tag from central scheme

The West Bengal government has decided to drop the tag "Pradhan Mantri" from "Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna" and rename it as "Bangla Fasal Bima Yojna", a senior minister today confirmed today.

The reason behind the decision to drop the Pradhan Mantri tag, taken at a state Cabinet meeting earlier this month, was that the Centre's share in such schemes had come down to 50:50, state agriculture minister Purnendu Basu explained to PTI. "We do not see any necessity in continuing with the Pradhan Mantri tag on a project for which the state government has been contributing much. This decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting," Basu said.

As per the norm, the farmer had to pay one-third of it while the remaining two-thirds was borne by the Centre and the state government. Earlier, the Centre's contribution was either 90 per cent or around 75 per cent, which now came down to 50 per cent or below in several schemes. "Give me a logic why we should continue with the name Pradhan Mantri when the state government's contribution to the scheme was maximum," Basu reasoned.

The state has already renamed some of the central government schemes like Swach Bharat has become Nirmal Bangla. It was also learnt that the Centre has sent a letter to the state Panchayat department seeking the reason behind dropping "Pradhan Mantri" tag from the schemes.