Congress stages walkout over crop insurance issue in Gujarat

The opposition Congress on Wednesday staged a walkout over the issue of crop insurance for farmers when the Gujarat Assembly Speaker stopped the discussion during Question Hour on the 6th day of the budget session.

SpeakerRajendra Trivedi stopped agricultural minister R.C. Faldu when he was answering the second question by Congress MLA from Deodar, Shivabhai Bhuriya. He stopped the minister as Congress MLA Lalit Kagathara started clapping. The Speaker then ended the entire discussion and moved on to the next question.

This move by the Speaker angered the Congress MLAs and they started shouting and raised slogans in the House and later staged a walkout.

"Crores have been acquired from the farmers in the form of crop insurance premium. In order to save the insurance companies, the government is scuttling the discussion on the question," said Shailesh Parmar, the Congress whip.

"The agriculture minister himself said that insurance companies are making fun of the farmers, when out of the 600 farmers, only two have been paid. I congratulated him that he had the guts to say this in the House and started clapping, so the Speaker closed the entire discussion on this issue," said Lalit Kagathara.

"The government does not answer what action has been taken against the insurance companies for not paying the crop insurance to farmers," said Geniben Thakor, the MLA from Vav.IANS