The Centre has transferred Rs 5,940 crore as the 1st instalment of Rs 2,000 each to 29.7 million small and marginal farmers across India. More than one-third of the beneficiaries i.e. 11.1 million farmers were in Uttar Pradesh.
A senior agriculture department official said that “States had sent records of 47.6 million farmers before the code of conduct was imposed. And out of that, we look forward to to transfer money to 40 million farmers during the voting phase. The left over 7.6 million farmers have been ruled out because of data discrepancies”.
He said that the funds are being transferred under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi or PM-Kisan, announced in the interim budget 2019. The government will begin transferring the 2nd instalment from 1st April 2019 i.e. from next week. The official added that “With the disbursement of the 2nd instalment, the centre is expected to transfer Rs 16,000 crore to farmers in the country under the PM-Kisan scheme. Many farmers will get both the instalments in April”.
The Election Commission (EC) has allowed the centre to continue schemes for which beneficiaries were identified before the model code of conduct came into force with the March 10 declaration of the Lok Sabha election 2019 schedule.
