Cong MLAs grill Gujarat govt over farmer, fishermen issue

The members of Opposition came down heavily on the ruling party in the Gujarat Assembly during the question hour on Thursday. The Opposition asked questions on the status of allotment of high speed diesel (HSD) to fishermen and crop insurance payment to farmers for groundnuts and cotton. Though the members of the ruling party tried to defend their stance, they failed at the face of repeated allegations and aggression.

Vimal Chudasama, the Congress MLA from Somnath and Vikram Madam from Khambhaliya questioned Fisheries Minister RC Faldu whether the centre is taking any step to offer a rebate on HSD prices. And, though the Gujarat government had written to the centre twice — on December 31, 2013 and December 17, 2014 — to offer a rebate on HSD to all farmers who own boats, Faldu said the former UPA government altered the policy, and decided to give it to below poverty line (BPL) fishermen only.

Dissatisfied with the answer, the Congress MLAs mentioned that as a CM, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attacked the UPA government on this issue, but failed to resolve the same, when elected to power. They also taunted the members of the ruling party on several occassions.

The Opposition also raised questions on the repayment of insurance claims of farmers for groundnuts and cotton. The minister concerned retorted saying some payments were already made while some others are in the process. In some other cases, the crops were not notified for claim repayment.

Opposition leader Paresh Dhanani alleged that: "The central and state governments let the insurance company eat up Rs 25,000 crore of premium against crop insurance and only 2 to 9 per cent claims were passed to the farmers. The government altered the crop insurance policy and that was a faulty design. One of our members had asked questions on farmer suicides, but the Agriculture Minister managed to remove it from the questionnaire."