Hours after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s claim of success of the state’s own health insurance scheme “Bangla Shasya Bima”, and said that the state government is currently releasing Rs 350 crore directly into the bank accounts of 9 lakh farmers, the leader of the opposition in West Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari refuted claims by submitting some statistics.

He also criticised West Bengal for opting out of a similar scheme from the Union government, which was active in West Bengal for three years of 2016, 2017 and 2018.

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“Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY); Modi Govt’s flagship Crop Insurance Scheme was implemented in West Bengal for 3 years from 2016 till 2018. In these 3 years a total of 135 lakh applications of insured farmers had been covered under the scheme. For the same period a total of Rs 637 crore was released by government of India towards premium subsidy. Against a farmer’s share of premium of Rs 305 crores, a total claim of Rs 1,218 crores was released to farmers of West Bengal under the scheme,” Adhikari claimed in a statement made on his official X (formerly Twitter) handle on Wednesday night.

Thereafter, criticising the decision of the state government to opt out of central scheme after 2019, the leader of the opposition claimed that the state’s own scheme could not prevent farmer’s suicide during the period since the state government opted out of the central scheme.

“The end result is that we witness cases of farmer suicides in West Bengal, especially when they are distressed after loss of crops due to untimely rain, storms and other weather and irrigation related issues. If WB’s crop insurance scheme is so effective, why has it failed to prevent farmer suicides in the state?” Adhikari’s statement read.