Farmers in Assam, Meghalaya, J&K and Ladakh have been given a one-year extension to provide Aadhaar data to avail themselves of income support benefits under the PM-KISAN scheme. The new deadline will be March 31, 2021.
The decision to relax the mandatory requirement of Aadhaar seeding of data for beneficiaries in these States and the Union Territories was taken by the Union Cabinet at its meeting on Wednesday. This will benefit about 38 lakh farmers who have already received at least one instalment of PM-KISAN support, according to a official statement.
For other States, the deadline for seeding was December 2019. However, they had been given an extension till March 2020 as Aadhaar penetration was miniscule.
It has now been assessed that it will take much more time for these States to complete the work of seeding, which means beneficiaries may be excluded if the deadline is not relaxed, the statement said.
