- March 25, 2019
- Posted by: admin
- Category: Daily News
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- More than 20 million additional farmers will get two instalments of INR2,000 each ahead of the forthcoming general elections, following the go-ahead by the Election Commission to the government to resume payments under its minimum income support scheme, Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN), to small and marginal landowners who were identified before the polls were announced.
- The government has already paid 27.5 million farmers the first instalment under the INR750bn cash transfer scheme.
- These farmers will get the second instalment, which is due on 1 Apr 19. Another 20.1 million farmers, who were identified but not paid before the model code of conduct for general elections kicked in on 10 Mar 19, will get two instalments in quick succession.
- The Election Commission has allowed the government to continue schemes for which specific beneficiaries were identified before the model code of conduct came into force.
- More than 65% beneficiaries are in BJP-ruled states such as Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat which took the lead in identifying farmers who are eligible under the scheme.
- Uttar Pradesh, which has about 20% of India’s small and marginal farmers, as per the agricultural census 2015, has 10.2 million beneficiaries, the highest in the country, followed by Andhra Pradesh (3.3 million), Gujarat (2.6 million), Tamil Nadu (1.77 million), Telangana (1.76 million) and Maharashtra (1.51 million).
- Among Congress-ruled states, the number is negligible or nil in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Rajasthan while Punjab has identified around 956,000 farmers and Chhattisgarh has listed 88,448.
- West Bengal has not identified any beneficiaries under the scheme. Rajasthan has around 5.5 million small and marginal farmers, out of which the state government has sent names of around 127,000 farmers under the scheme.
25-Mar-2019
