Union Agri Minister at meeting with States: No eligible farmers should be deprived of PM-Kisan benefits

Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar during a virtual meeting with the agriculture ministers of the States said that no eligible farmer should be deprived of the benefits of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme.

During the virtual meeting on Wednesday, the Union minister also asked the States to complete data verification and update it at the earliest.

Under the PM-KISAN scheme, eligible farmers are given Rs 6,000 in 3 equal instalments of Rs 2,000 every year -- so that they can meet some of the input costs for farming and allied expenses and subsequent increases in their income.

Since its launch in February 2019, 11 instalments have been disbursed under the scheme in which more than Rs 2 lakh crore has been transferred to about 11.37 crore eligible farmers.

Notably, the benefit of PM-Kisan is provided only to farmers with land holdings.

A landholder farmer's family is defined as "a family comprising of husband, wife and minor children who owns cultivable land as per land records of the concerned State/UT".

The existing land-ownership system will be used for the identification of beneficiaries for the calculation of benefit.

A database is being created for quick identification of eligible farmers for PM-KISAN and other schemes and farmers' welfare schemes to be launched in the future.

It will have all the information including Aadhar, the bank accounts of farmers and the land records of farmers will be linked with their records. The land records of the States will have to be digitally converted to create the database.

The virtual meeting was held largely for this agenda.

Union agriculture secretary Manoj Ahuja and additional secretary Abhilaksh Likhi were present in the meeting along with Ministers/senior officers of other States. Joint Secretary and CEO of PM-Kisan Pramod Kumar Meherda too gave a presentation on the scheme.

Agriculture ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Bihar also presented their views in the meeting.

(ANI)

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