Bihar couldn’t use central funds for farmers: Minister

New Delhi, June 13 (IANS) Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Tuesday took a dig at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for not implementing central government-sponsored schemes for farmers.

Singh's remarks came after Nitish Kumar attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the agrarian crisis in most parts of the country.

Singh said the Bihar government had not been able to spend Rs 31.71 crore of Rs 45 crore allotted by the Centre to the state for implementing micro-irrigation scheme in two financial years -- 2014-15 (Rs 35 crore) and 2016-17 (Rs 10 crore).

"If the Chief Minister is really concerned about increasing the income of farmers, he should show his commitment towards the implementation of schemes approved by the Modi government in his state. Just talking would not do any good to the farmers," a release quoted Singh as saying.

Singh said Bihar was allotted Rs 101 crore under the National Food Security Mission to provide high-yielding food grain seeds to the farmers at subsidised rates, but even there it could not spend Rs 8 crore.

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