PM-Kisan: Was Modi Government’s Flagship Scheme Introduced Only To Win Elections?

One of the flagship schemes of BJP government, (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi) PM Kisan, is in news once again and for all wrong reasons. Not a single farmer in Uttar Pradesh which accounts for 25 per cent of country’s total farmers, has been paid the third instalment of PM-Kisan.

As per an Indian Express report a UP government official said that farmers should receive the payments within 2-3 days.

The first instalment for the period December 1, 2018, to March 31, 2019, was transferred in 2018-19 itself. As per reports, a large number of farmers were paid the second instalment in April. The scheme was supposed to cover 10 crore farmers by the year-end. But as the data suggests the number of beneficiaries declined drastically after the first phase.

The scheme’s third instalment of Rs 2,000 is due between August 1 and November 30. Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, and Telangana are the top states which have disbursed the third instalment of 6 lakh, 14 lakh and 11 lakh respectively. In the third instalment, only 95 lakh farmers have been paid so far. The figure is equivalent to 59 per cent of the total farmers across the nation.

The PM Kisan scheme promised a direct transfer of Rs 6000 to eligible farmers in their bank accounts in three instalments of Rs 2000 each, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in May 2019.

Even the second instalment which was to be released by July has not yet reached 100 per cent of the farmers. As per the government data, 6.47 crore farmers benefited from the PM-KISAN scheme during the first instalment, while only 3.83 crore beneficiaries got the second instalment.

One of the key requirements of the scheme is linking of Aadhaar cards with the bank accounts. The money is directly transferred to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. The first instalments reached the maximum number of beneficiaries as an alternate identity proof was allowed if a person did not have an Aadhaar card. The delay in payments with second and third instalments is reportedly due to benefeciaries either lacking Aadhaar Cards or their bank accounts not being linked with the Aadhaar database.

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