Govt reduced to agent of insurance firms: Hooda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 31

Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today termed the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana a “loan recovery scheme”and said the BJP government in Haryana had reduced itself to an “agent of private insurance companies”.

“The scheme treats one village as a unit, which is disadvantageous to farmers, while premium is taken from every farmer. There is discrimination in premium rates depending upon districts and areas,” he told the media here.

Hooda further said, “Farmers who have taken loans are being forced to adopt the insurance scheme which has seemingly become only a loan recovery measure since the premium will be pocketed by private companies. The government’s job is not to become an agent to private insurance companies.”

The government should pay the entire premium and insure farmers’ crop if it was “pro farmer” and had their welfare at heart. “At the time of the UPA government, it was an optional scheme. The NDA-led government has changed the name and made it mandatory.”

On the traffic chaos in Gurgaon, Hooda claimed a Central team of the National Highway Authority of India had, in its report, said the drains had not been cleaned for nearly two years.

“It was a complete failure of the district administration, as also the Manohar Lal Khattar government. The government was marketing the state as an investment destination during ‘Happening Haryana’ conclave in Gurgaon a few months ago. Waterlogged roads have exposed the government’s tall claims. The state is witnessing a ‘mis-happening’ in Gurgaon,” the Congress leader said.

He claimed that 90 per cent of the work on Dwarka Expressway was completed during the Congresss rule. “The BJP government has made no effort to complete the project which would have taken care of 40 per cent of the traffic headed to Gurgaon.”

Poking fun at the government for its lack of control on its ministers and its working, Hooda said: “The steering wheel is with Khattar, but he has no control because the accelerator, the brake, the gear and the clutch are in different hands. Changing two ministers will not improve the government’s working because they are all non-performers. The entire government should resign if performance was the criteria for dropping the two ministers.”

The former CM refused to comment on Capt Ajay Yadav’s resignation. “Nobody takes him seriously. He says one thing in the morning, another in the afternoon and, by evening, he says something completely different.” Congress MLA Geeta Bhukkal and former MLA BB Batra were present at the press meet.