Prime Minister Narendra Modi will transfer nearly Rs 19,500 crore to 9.75 crore farmers on August 9 as the ninth instalment of the PM-KISAN Samman Nidhi Yojana but only about 26 lakh farmers of West Bengal would get that money of the over 68 lakh potential beneficiaries in the state.
This will still be a big improvement from just seven lakh farmers of West Bengal who got two instalments of Rs 2,000 each in May this year for the first time. “This time, nearly 26 lakh farmers of West Bengal will get one instalment of the money (Rs 2,000),” a source in the Centre told News18. This will still be less than 40% of the total 68 lakh potential beneficiary farmers in West Bengal, the TMC-ruled state which joined the scheme for the first time this May after a delay of nearly two years. The beneficiary validation is still work in progress.
In poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, over 2.36 crore farmers will get the PM-Kisan instalment on August 9 and PM will also interact with three farmers from Uttar Pradesh.
BJP leaders during the West Bengal elections in March-April had promised that all farmers of West Bengal would get all eight past instalments of PM-KISAN scheme, totalling to Rs 16,000 for each farmer as arrears once the BJP wins in the state and the scheme is implemented in West Bengal. However, this has not happened so far and a source explained “the mandate of the PM-KISAN scheme does not allow for this (the payment of arrears) unless the mandate is expanded”.
So far, a beneficiary becomes eligible for an instalment only from that four-month period in which his verified data reaches Centre from the concerned state. In case of farmers from West Bengal, verified data of about seven lakh farmers had reached the Centre in the December-March 20-21 period and hence these farmers were paid two instalments together for the first time this May during the April-June 21-22 period, the source explained. The scheme has started in December 2018.
This time, around 26 lakh farmers from West Bengal would receive one instalment. The source explained that while they had received data of nearly 45 lakh farmers from West Bengal government, data of 34.5 lakh farmers data had been validated so far as per Income Tax databases. Further, the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) had accepted the data of about 26 lakh farmers of West Bengal and the rest was pending for corrections.
“The delay is not on our part and we want to pro-actively cover all farmers of West Bengal under the scheme but there is a system in place to avoid frauds and wrong payments by cross-checking through IT Databases and PFMS system. Since West Bengal joined the scheme very late, everything is taking the required time now,” the source said. The caution is also being exercised because, as per what News18 reported last month, the Centre is trying to recover nearly Rs 3,000 crore which was transferred to over 42 lakh ineligible farmers across the country under the PM-KISAN scheme.
The West Bengal government wrote to the Centre last week, complaining that while it submitted data of nearly 45 lakh farmers to the Centre, the names of nearly 9.5 lakh of them were missing from the approved data and needed corrections. West Bengal has blamed the technical errors on the Centre and said as a result, the state’s farmers are deprived of the money.
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