PM-Kisan Scheme – Ineligibility of Farmers and the Problems

The “Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)” is a scheme initiated by the central government to supplement the financial needs of all landholding farmers’ families. This scheme was started in the year 2018. Under the scheme income support will be provided to all land holding farmer families. Since last year we were witnessing many frauds, scams and the ineligibility of the farmers across the country. So let see what is this PM-Kisan scheme - the benefits, eligibility criteria, farmers registration process and the issues/problems related to this scheme.

About the Scheme

In order to provide income support to all landholding farmers’ families in the country, having cultivable land, the Central Government has implemented a Central Sector Scheme called “Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)” was started in the year 2018. The aim is to supplement the financial needs of all landholding farmers’ families in procuring various inputs to ensure proper crop health and appropriate yields, commensurate with the anticipated farm income as well as for domestic needs. In this scheme an amount of Rs.6000/- per year in three equal installments is released by the Central Government online directly into the bank accounts of the eligible farmers under Direct Benefit Transfer mode, subject to certain exclusions.

Farm family

The government has defined about a farm family. Acc.to it a landholder farmer’s family is defined as “a family comprising of husband, wife and minor children who owns cultivable land as per land records of the concerned State/UT”. The existing land-ownership system will be used for identification of beneficiaries for calculation of benefit.

(Image source : nic.in)
Who are not eligible ? 

The following categories of beneficiaries of higher economic status shall not be eligible for benefit under the scheme.

1.       1. All Institutional Land holders

2.       2.  Farmer families in which one or more of its members belong to following categories:

a)     Former and present holders of constitutional posts

b)     Former and present Ministers / State Ministers and former / present Members of Lok Sabha / Rajya Sabha / State Legislative Assemblies / State Legislative Councils, former and present Mayors of Municipal Corporations, former and present Chairpersons of District Panchayats.

c)  All serving or retired officers and employees of Central / State Government Ministries / Offices / Departments and their field units, Central or State PSEs and Attached offices / Autonomous Institutions under Government as well as regular employees of the Local Bodies

Note: The Multi-Tasking Staff / Class IV / Group D employees will eligible for this scheme

d)      All Persons who paid Income Tax in last assessment year.

e) Professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, and Architects registered with Professional bodies and carrying out profession by undertaking practices. 

                       In case of self-declaration, beneficiary shall be liable for recovery of transferred financial benefit and other penal actions as per law.

How a farmer can register under PM KISAN?

  1. Go to PM Kisan's official website.
  2. Then click on 'Farmers Corner'
  3. Next, click on 'New farmer registration'
  4. Choose 'Rural farmer registration' or 'Urban farmer registration'
  5. Add your Aadhaar number, and mobile number, select state and click on ‘Get OTP’.
  6. Fill in the OTP and proceed with the registration
  7. Enter other details such as select state, district, bank details and personal details. Enter your details as per Aadhaar.
  8. Then click on ‘Submit for Aadhaar authentication
  9. Once your Aadhaar Authentication is successful, enter your land details, upload your supporting documents and click on save
  10. You will receive a message of confirmation or rejection on your screen.

                                 One needs to complete the KYC process to receive the installment. OTP based e- KYC can be done on PMKISAN portal or in nearest CSC centers for Biometric based e-KYC. 

Problems/ Frauds in PM KISAN scheme

The government has given online provision for self-registration of prospective beneficiaries, after furnishing the required details. This arrangement allowed a section of field officials at offices of Assistant Directors of Agriculture to collude with private computer centers. The COVID-19 pandemic was used by the alleged culprits, as the field-level officers were occupied with immediate requirements of farmers and many could not visit their offices. By taking this advantage many fake entries have been made to get benefit under this scheme. Let see few scams/frauds in this blog.

 ₹110 crore PM KISAN scheme scam in Tamil Nadu

It has been reported that ₹110 crore was fraudulently credited to the bank accounts of 5.5 lakh ineligible people in 13 districts of Tamil Nadu under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) Scheme during 2021. It was due to the fake beneficiary’s registration on the portal. As of November 2021, ₹32 crore has been recovered from the farmers.

21 lakh farmers picked in UP found ineligible under PM Kisan scheme
The UP, Agriculture minister told that around 21 lakh farmers selected in Uttar Pradesh under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme ineligible, in some cases here are numerous instances where both the husband and wife benefited from this programme. The minister assured that the money granted to those ineligible farmers so far under the programme would be reimbursed from them soon.

                           The government has provided the online portal for self-registration to the farmers under PM KISAN. As we know most of the Indian farmers were not well educated and the registration process and self-declaration may not be genuine most of the times. The intermediate and private people were playing this game. The government should focus on making the registration process and the beneficiary identification more transparent and should involve the educated youths and agriculture graduates in this process.

 ( Sources : Economics times,The Hindu ,pmkisan.gov.in)

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