When Prime Minister Narendra Modi pressed the button to launch the sixth instalment of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi by video-conferencing on Sunday, it must have warmed the cockles of the hearts of thousands of farmers in the State who were expecting an additional investment support for agriculture from government.
The Central scheme, which became operational on December 1, 2018, has seen a steady addition of farmers in every instalment in the State though the website gave a totally different picture. So, the agriculture department of Telangana has written to the Union Ministry of Agriculture, seeking revision of the format in which the figures of beneficiaries were presented.
Actually, the number of farmers had grown in the State from 24.29 lakh to 37.09 lakh in the five instalments from December 1, 2018, to July 31, 2020. But, the website showed the figures for all States in the reverse direction. It displayed that 37.09 lakh farmers benefited in the first instalment, 35.89 lakh in the second, 34. 21 lakh in the third, 31.86 lakh in the fourth and 24.29 lakh in the fifth.
A senior agriculture officer told that the figures should be read reverse which in effect meant that thousands of farmers had registered between each instalment and added to the scheme. Their number in the sixth instalment would be known in a couple of days after the latest registrations were approved.
The scheme envisaged direct benefit transfer (DBT) of ₹2,000 to the accounts of farmers in three equal instalments with a gap of four months each in a year. It became operational with the first instalment from December 1, 2018, to March 31, 2019, though Mr Modi formally launched the same at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh on February 24, 2019. The second instalment corresponded to April 1, 2019 to July 31, 2019, third to August 1, 2019, to November 30, 2019, fourth to December 1, 2019, to March 31, 2020, and fifth to April 1, 2020 to July 31, 2020.
The sixth instalment, which Mr. Modi launched on Sunday, pertained to the period from August 1, 2020, to November 30, 2020, to benefit 8.55 crore farmers with an outgo of ₹17,100 crore in the next 10 days. The Centre targeted adding up to 14 crore farmers to the exception of government servants, IT payers, elected representatives, pensioners who are drawing more than ₹10,000 a month and professionals like doctors and lawyers.
The scheme invited limited beneficiaries in Telangana as compared to Rytu Bandhu programme of the State government because the former was extended with family as a unit. In Rytu Bandu, there were multiple beneficiaries within a family as it was based on land holding. It was given at ₹12,000 per acre per year to every patta holder in a family.
The PM Kisan Samman Nidhi was aimed at small and marginal farmer families having combined land holding up to two hectares. Family was defined as husband, wife and minor children.
