Badal wants 'amendment' in crop insurance scheme

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today claimed there are certain "shortcomings" in the Centre's new crop insurance scheme and said an amendment was needed in order to make it "farmer friendly".
"Declaring village as a unit for crop insurance would hardly fulfil the basic spirit behind introducing the scheme. Rather it should ensure that plot was considered as a unit to compensate the farmers for their loss," he said.
Badal also claimed that insuring the crop only if whole village pays its premium, was also an "impractical assumption".
"We are bringing all the shortcomings in the notice of the Centre and will urge them to amend the scheme so that more and more farmer friendly especially the original green revolution states like Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh will be benefited from it," he alleged.

Refuting the allegation levelled by Congress that main accused in the Abohar murder case was associated with Shiromani Akali Dal, Badal said that this was baseless as the person concerned was not related to his party directly or indirectly.
The Chief Minister said the state government was fully committed to nab those behind the killing.

On probe being carried out by National Investigation Agency (NIA) into Pathankot terror attack, the Chief Minister said that the national agency was probing the incident very minutely and any one found guilty in this case would not be spared at any cost.
He said the state government was adopting a zero tolerance towards the issues involving national security, law and order, peace and brotherhood.

"Anyone found indulging in such issues of grave national importance will not be spared at any cost," said Badal.