PM-Kisan Scheme: Nearly ₹3,000cr Transferred TTo 42 Lakh Ineligible Beneficiaries, Govt Tells Parliament
Mumbai: Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has informed the Parliament that during the verification process, it was found that around Rs 3,000 crore has been transferred to 42 lakh ineligible farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme and the Central government now recovering.
Further, Tomar said that ‘Standard Operating Guidelines’ (SOPs) for recovery of funds from ineligible beneficiaries have been issued and disseminated to the states.
“The structure of the scheme inherently includes mechanisms to exclude errors based on continuous verification and verification of the data of beneficiaries by various authorities such as Aadhaar, PFMS, or income tax database. However, during the process of verification, it was found that the benefits of the scheme were transferred to some ineligible beneficiaries, including some income tax-paying farmers,” CNN-News 18 quoted Tomar as saying.
Sharing the state-wise data about ineligible beneficiaries, the Minister said that Assam tops the list of ineligible farmers, followed by Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Maharashtra.
In Assam, nearly 8.35 lakh registrations have been identified as ineligible, while in Tamil Nadu 7.22 lakh beneficiaries have been identified as ineligible due to wrongful activities. Punjab- 5.62 lakh, Maharashtra- 4.45 lakh, Uttar Pradesh-2.65 lakh) and Gujarat- 2.36 lakh.
Notably, PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana is a central scheme with 100 per cent funding from the central government. Under the scheme, income support of Rs 6,000 per year is being provided to small and marginal farmer families having joint land/ownership of up to 2 hectares in three equal instalments.
State Government and UT administration identify the farmer families which are eligible for support as per scheme guidelines and directly transfer the fund to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.
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