PTI, BEED (MAHA): Quoting a book, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said the Centre’s crop insurance scheme was “as big a scam” as the Rafale fighter jet deal.
Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s frequent foreign tours, he said mere speeches and announcements will not help the public, and demanded that the BJP-led government solve farmers’ problems before looking at alliance talks for the forthcoming elections.
Modi had launched the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna in 2015 with the main objective to provide insurance cover and financial support to farmers in the event of failure of any of the notified crops as a result of natural calamities, pests and diseases.
Addressing a rally in Beed district of Maharashtra during his tour of the drought-hit Marathwada region, Thackeray asked how many people received benefits of the government’s crop insurance scheme after paying instalments to insurance firms.
“People have got cheques of Rs 2, Rs 5, Rs 50, Rs 100. I don’t do ‘Mann ki Baat’ (referring to Modi’s monthly radio programme) but believe in speaking ‘jann ki baat’. Allegations are being made that there is a scam of thousands of crores in the crop insurance scheme,” he said.
