West Bengal Denying Pm-Kisan Scheme

The west Bengal governments stand on not joining the Centre’s assured income support scheme (PM-KISAN) would collectively deny Rs 1342 crore to the states over 67 lakh eligible small and marginal farmers who constitute nearly 96% of the total farmers there. The amount is supposed to be disbursed as the first installment of the scheme by March 31.

Since Sikkim and Delhi too have not yet given their nod to PM-Kisan, the eligible farmers there stand to lose Rs 11 crore and Rs 3 crore respectively. The agricultural ministry has estimated 67,11,230 eligible small and marginal farmers in West Bengal, 55090 in Sikkim and 15880 in Delhi.

Under PM-Kisan, each of nearly 12 crore eligible small and marginal landholder farmer families who have cultivable land up to 2 hectares, subject to certain exclusions, will get Rs 6000 per annum in three equal installments every four months in a financial year. Such farmers together account for over 86% of total farmers in the country.

“ Theperformance of the scheme is based on the performance and efficiency of the concerned states/UTs in identifying the targeted beneficiary and uploading their list on the PM-KISAN portal,” said Union agricultural minister Radha Mohan Singh.