Companies under PM crop scheme involved in scam: Uddhav Thackeray

Mumbai: Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Friday accused insurance companies providing cover under the central government’s crop insurance scheme of being involved in corruption and fleecing farmers.

The Sena chief said the ‘Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana’ was a good scheme but was hijacked by some “unscrupulous elements” who were profiteering from it. “When the government has declared a drought, how can the insurance companies claim otherwise and not give money” to the farmers facing crop losses, he asked. “There are 90 lakh farmers in Maharashtra who have been declared ineligible by the insurance companies,” Thackeray told a press conference here.

“I don’t use the word corruption in an offhand manner but there is huge corruption in this crop insurance scheme. We need to find the evil person in this and take them to task,” he said.


“If the farmers are not being paid, then the government should withdraw the money deposited with these companies by farmers and pay the farmers directly,” he said.

The Sena president going aggressive on the crop insurance scheme would embarrass the BJP government, as it has been talking about how the scheme had benefited farmers.

A state agriculture department official told ET that many farmers who had suffered damage to their crop were denied compensation by insurance companies. But he said this was because of a “flaw in the criteria” to determine drought.