Crop insurance as big a scam as Rafale: Uddhav

Beed, January 9

Quoting a book, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray today said the Centre’s crop insurance scheme was “as big a scam” as the Rafale fighter jet deal.

Taking a dig at PM 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 electoral alliance talks.

Modi had launched the scheme in 2015 with the objective of providing insurance cover in the event of failure of the notified crops.

During his tour of drought-hit Marathwada, Thackeray asked how many received benefits after paying instalments to insurance firms.  “People have got cheques for Rs 2, Rs 5, Rs 50, Rs 100.  Allegations are being made of a scam of thousands of crores,” he said. — PTI