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Rajnath demands farm income insurance scheme

Flays Centre for importing wheat

Jalandhar: The BJP on Sunday demanded an agriculture income insurance scheme be launched in place of a crop insurance scheme in the light of reported suicides by farmers in several places in the country.

``There is not much benefit from a crop insurance scheme to farmers and instead of crop insurance, farmers' annual income from agriculture should be calculated and they should be compensated as per insurance for calculated income,'' party President Rajnath Singh said at a function here.

``A blueprint for an agriculture income insurance scheme was drafted in my tenure as Union Agriculture Minister and the Government should seriously think over it to give permanent relief to ailing farmers,'' he added.

The financial condition of farmers has deteriorated during the UPA rule and no steps have been taken to give relief to them, he claimed, demanding that loans at interest rates of 4 to 5 per cent be provided to the agriculture sector. Mr. Singh also criticised the ruling UPA at the Centre for its decision to import wheat, saying it had spawned a crisis-like situation. PTI

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Rajnath demands farm income insurance scheme

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