Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday termed as “retrograde” the decision of the Centre to make crop insurance voluntary and said there can be nothing more anti-farmer.

He said more cropped area needs to be brought under crop insurance and the decision will reduce coverage putting millions of farmers at risk.

“Another example of the BJP government’s short-sightedness and misplaced priorities,” he charged.

“Nothing can be more anti-farmer than the central government’s decision to reduce its contribution to the Crop Insurance Scheme,” he said.

The government on Wednesday made its flagship crop insurance schemes voluntary for farmers with existing crop loans or those willing to take new ones.

In a series of tweets, Chidambaram said, “Making crop insurance voluntary for loanee farmers is another retrograde step”.

“The new decisions will reduce the coverage putting millions of farmers at risk,” the former finance minister added.