The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojna (PM-Kisan Yojana) is a Government of India (GoI) scheme through which all small and marginal farmers will get beneficiaries up to Rs. 6000 per year as support income.
Launched by the Centre in 2019, the ambitious scheme of budget Rs. 75,000 crores aim to cover 12.5 crores farmers irrespective of the size of their landholding.
The monetary support is provided in three equal installments of Rs. 2000 every four months directly transferred to the bank accounts of the farmers.
Who is eligible for the PM Kisan Scheme?
- Landholding farmers’ families with cultivable landholdings in their names can apply under this scheme.
- Farmers from both the urban and rural areas.
- Small and marginal farmers’ families.
Who are not eligible for PM Kisan Scheme?
- Institutional landholders.
- Present or retired officers and employees of state/central government as well as PSUs and government autonomous bodies.
- Beneficiaries with higher economic status are not eligible.
- Those who pay income tax.
- Farmer families holding constitutional posts.
- Professionals like doctors, engineers, and lawyers.
- Retired pensioners with a monthly pension of over Rs 10,000.
However, in a reply to a Right to Information (RTI) query, Union Agricultural Ministry revealed that the Government has paid Rs. 1,365 crores to 20.48 lakhs undeserving beneficiaries under the PM-Kisan scheme.
The majority of these incompatible beneficiaries hail from Punjab, Assam, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh.
Assam state is in the second rank in the total number of undeserving farmers In the PM-Kisan scheme with 3,45, 497 undeserving candidates (16.87 percent)
The Union Agriculture Ministry, in response to the RTI query by RTI applicant Venkatesh Nayak of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), identified two categories of undeserving beneficiaries who received PM-KISAN payouts as “ineligible farmers” and “income tax payee farmers”.
As per the information and data received by the RTI applicant Venkatesh Nayak more than half (55.58 percent) of these undeserving persons belong to the ‘income tax payee category’.”
Earlier on May 18, 2020, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal ordered a high-level probe into the allegations of irregularities in the implementation of the PM-Kisan scheme.
Agriculture Minister of Assam Atul Bora on May 2020 replying to a query by former Opposition leader Debabrata Saikia informed that more than three lakh people who were not eligible had been included as beneficiaries for the scheme. Atul Bora informed that the highest number of illegal beneficiaries were detected in Barpeta (1.51 lakhs) followed by Kamrup and Baksa.
The Union Agriculture Minister on May had stopped payments to all the beneficiaries in Assam asking the state government for a report and probe into the potential fraud in the PM-Kisan scheme.
Massive steps are being taken by us to eliminate irregularities in #PMKisan beneficiary list.
We stand firmly with the farmers of Assam and any corruption to take away their rightful due will not be tolerated. pic.twitter.com/Zp2OH9s3eT
— Atul Bora (@ATULBORA2) May 14, 2020
The foremost dubieties that still linger are-
- How can the state government let such loopholes incur in such an important department?
- Is the state agricultural minister to be blamed for such misconduct in the department?
- What are the steps that the state government tends to take to put an end to such misconducts in the future?
- Are high officials of the agriculture department involved in the PM-Kisan Scheme forgery?
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