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Vijay C Roy
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 17
Nearly 14 lakh more farmers in Punjab and Haryana are likely to be benefitted with the expanded version of the Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme. For the successful implementation of the scheme, both the state governments are in the process of notifying the scheme which ensures ‘assured income support’ to farmers.
In its earlier avatar (launched on February 24), the scheme was meant only for marginal and small farmers having cultivable land up to two hectares or nearly 5 acres. It was expanded by the new government in its first Cabinet meeting on May 31, bringing even semi-medium, medium and large farmers into its ambit by removing the ceiling of two hectares from its earlier version. Accordingly, all landholding farmers, subject to certain exclusions, would get Rs 6,000 each per year.
The Centre has already notified the expanded version of the scheme and asked all the states and Union Territories to provide verified list of beneficiaries by July 31.
“We are in the process of notifying the scheme, as once it is notified, we will be able to implement the scheme in its current form. We expect that with the ambit of the scheme having widened, around eight lakh more farmers will be eligible to avail the benefits of the scheme. Currently, 18.92 lakh farmers in Punjab have applied to become potential beneficiaries, “Punjab Agriculture Secretary KS Pannu told The Tribune.
Out of this, the state has uploaded the database of 16.85 lakh farmers on PM-Kisan portal and an amount of Rs 225 crore was credited to 11.25 lakh farmers’ accounts towards the first instalment. Moreover, 12.05 lakh farmers have received the second instalment of Rs 2,000 each in their accounts.
Neighbouring Haryana has 13.31 lakh farmers which are potential beneficiaries under the scheme currently. The state government expects that around six lakh more farmers will be eligible to receive the benefits under the expanded version of the scheme. “It is early to say but we expect six lakh more farmers would be added under the ambit of scheme, taking the total tally to 19 lakh,” said a senior official in the Haryana government.
The Central government has already transferred the first payment of Rs 187.97 crore to 9.39 lakh farmers in Haryana and the second instalment of Rs 187.09 crore to 9.35 lakh farmers under the scheme.
The responsibility of identifying eligible beneficiary farmers and uploading the farmers’ data on PM-Kisan portal has been entrusted entirely to the state and UT governments. The database generated through PM-Kisan would be used to target beneficiaries of the pension scheme as well.
According to estimates, when the scheme was meant only for marginal and small farmers in its earlier version, six states, namely Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat brought benefits to more than 50% of their potential beneficiaries.
Farmers under PM-Kisan scheme
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