Bhubaneswar: Biju Janata Dal senior leader and Rajya Sabha member Sasmit Patra has lashed out at the double standards of Bharatiya Janata Party over release of Fasal Bima money to the farmers of Odisha.
Sasmit has said that the people of Odisha are fully aware of the anti farmer attitude of BJP. Genuine Fasal Bima claims of farmers of Odisha were stopped for a long time by the center despite regular follow up from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and the Cooperation Minister.
He said, as the pressure from farmers’ increased and the BJP has seen the wrath of the farmers regarding stoppage of Fasal Bima of Odisha, the Fasal Bima is now being released.
In 2019, the BJP had tried to stop the KALIA Scheme which was pro-farmer. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik went to the Chief Electoral Officer’s Office in Bhubaneswar and personally intervened and explained about it. Finally the scheme was cleared. He said that Biju Janata Dal does not believe in doing politics on farmers issues. There are many other issues to do politics on. The Yojana itself is named as Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. The Fasal Bima is therefore to be paid by the BJP led Centre. But for so many months, the Centre kept delaying it. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan knows fully well that there is no merit in his letter.
Sasmit said the HDFC company was empanelled by the Centre itself. How did the Centre empanel a company which is so corrupt in the first place, he asked. How is such a company then working in BJP ruled States of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam, Tripura and Maharashtra?
Secondly, by mentioning that a collusion has taken place in the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, he has in fact indicted his own Government of irregularities in a Central Programme. The Centre should now admit whether they have failed to run a clean Central Government programme. This is another classic example of trying to mislead the farmers of Odisha by deflecting the fact that it was the Centre which was blocking the payment of Fasal Bima which Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the Centre should reply to the farmers of Padampur as to why they were doing this for so long.