According to the Agriculture Ministry's response to an RTI request from activist Kanhaiya Kumar, the number of farmers who received the 11th instalment of funding from the Prime Minister's Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) has decreased by 67 percent. The Central program PM-KISAN was introduced in 2019 and offers eligible farming families Rs 6,000 per year in three instalments of Rs 2,000 each.
As per the ministry's instalment-wise payment success report, only 3.87 crore farmers really received the 11th instalment of 2,000 in their accounts in May and June of 2022. This is a big decline from the 11.84 crore farmers who received the first instalment in February 2019, shortly before the Lok Sabha elections. The most recent 12th instalment was paid in October this year.
With the sixth instalment, which was received by 9.87 crore farmers instead of the first instalment's 11.84 crore, a pattern of a decline started to emerge. The seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth instalments were distributed to 9.30, 8.59, 7.66, and 6.34 crore persons, respectively.
If reports are to be believed, the number of beneficiaries in Andhra Pradesh decreased from 55.68 lakh to 28.2 lakh. In Chhattisgarh, just two lakh farmers received the eleventh instalment, as opposed to the 37 lakh farmers who received the money in the first instalment. In Bihar, the number of beneficiaries increased to seven lakh from 83 lakh.
63.13 lakh farmers in Gujarat, a state where elections are soon, received support in 2019, but only 28.41 lakh did so in 2022. The first instalment was given to 19.73 lakh farmers in Haryana, and the eleventh instalment was given to 11.59 lakh farmers. In Maharashtra, the figure dropped from 1.09 crore in 2019 to 37.51 lakh in 2022.
In Madhya Pradesh, 88.63 lakh farmers received aid in 2019, but just 12,053 of them did so in 2022. Compared to 1.95 lakh farmers in 2019, Meghalaya's 627 farmers received it in 2022. In Punjab, the number decreased from 23.34 lakh to 11.31 lakh.
The numbers, according to Ashok Dhawle, head of the All India Kisan Sabha, are "very disturbing." "According to this figure, in 2022, two-thirds of the farmers have not got the money. There is no logical justification for such a drop in recipients. It demonstrates the Center's efforts to gradually wind down this program. This program in no way replaces the legally required MSP. The purpose of this program, according to Dr. Dhawale, was to avoid addressing the true problems that farmers are dealing with.
According to the Ministry, no funds were given to any fictitious recipients under the PM-KISAN scheme. It further stated that benefits were only distributed following receipt of State-provided farmer data that was 100 percent accurate and validated by Aadhaar or the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) database.
In Uttar Pradesh, 2.6 crore farmers used the assistance in 2019, and 1.26 crore did so in 2022, a 50% drop. According to the report, 45.63 lakh farmers in West Bengal received the money in 2019, and since the sixth instalment, no farmers have gotten any payments.
The state government has reportedly discussed this matter with Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
The numbers, according to Ashok Dhawle, head of the All India Kisan Sabha, are "very disturbing."
According to this figure, in 2022, two-thirds of the farmers have not got the money. There is no logical justification for such a drop in recipients. It demonstrates the Center's efforts to gradually wind down this programme.
This program in no way replaces the legally required MSP. The purpose of this program, according to Dr. Dhawale, was to avoid addressing the true problems that farmers are dealing with. According to the Ministry, no funds were given to any fictitious recipients under the PM-KISAN scheme. It further stated that benefits were only distributed following receipt of State-provided farmer data that was 100 percent accurate and validated by Aadhaar or the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) database.
