Patna, Aug. 5: The Centre today hit out at chief minister Nitish Kumar for not implementing the crop insurance scheme in Bihar and accused him of cheating farmers to satisfy his political ambitions.

Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan said: "Everybody (read Nitish) wants to become Prime Minister. That is good. But Narendra Modi became the PM after he got people's mandate. If Nitish is trying to project himself for the PM's role, he should do so after getting a mandate. He should not obstruct the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana in Bihar for the sake of his political ambitions and cheat farmers for his ulterior motives."

The attack came out at the Union minister's simultaneous video-conferencing from New Delhi with mediapersons in several states. It was prompted by questions over purported suggestions by Nitish to include the words "chief minister" to rename the scheme as Pradhan Mantri Mukhya Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, as farmers pay two per cent premium, while the Centre and state have to share the rest in the ratio of 50:50.

Accusing Nitish of "saying one thing, but harbouring something else inside", Radha Mohan asserted that the volte-face on implementing the scheme came after the state cabinet approved it and various banks operating in Bihar even took the farmers' share of premium for the scheme.

"The allegations that the premium rate of 14.92 per cent for Bihar is too high and is the reason for non-implementation of the scheme are baseless. There are several states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat, where premium rates are higher than Bihar.," Radha Mohan added.

The minister said previous crop insurance schemes across the country had proved burdensome on farmers, while the new one did away with the burden and made the central and the state governments to share it. "All political parties raise slogans in favour of farmers but they back out when the time to do something comes. There is a concept of welfare in our country and the governments should be willing to share some burden on the exchequer for the sake of farmers," he added.

So far, 22 states have agreed to implement the crop insurance scheme, while last-leg modalities are being worked out in others. Punjab, the poll-bound state, has its own crop insurance scheme for farmers for the past few decades and farmers are satisfied with it.

The Bihar government, in a statement in the state legislature, has asked for reasonable premium rates and increase in central share in the scheme as a precondition to implement it. August 10 is the last date to implement the scheme for the current kharif season in which paddy is the main crop in Bihar.

Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said the party will agitate on the streets if the crop insurance scheme is not implemented in the state and said the Nitish government should have made its intentions clear about not implementing the scheme in January itself when it gave its nod to the Centre and later approved it in a state cabinet meeting.