Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Tuesday (16 March 2021) said that the Centre has no proposal to increase the funds allocated under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana.
The scheme, popularly known as PM-Kisan, is a central Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) yojana under which financial support of Rs 6,000 is given every year to all landholding farmer families across India.
The fund is directly transferred into the bank accounts of beneficiary farmers identified by state & union territory governments in three installments of Rs 2,000 each.
Tomar in a written reply to the Lok Sabha said, "No sir, there is no proposal to increase the funds allocated under the PM-KISAN scheme". He told that currently Rs 6,000 / annum is given to the farmers and payment is done on the basis of Aadhaar-seeded data of beneficiaries, except for Meghalaya, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, who have been given exemption in this regard up to 31 March 2021.
He said in Rajasthan, around 70, 82,035 farmers have been given the benefit of the government scheme so far. In addition, an amount of Rs 7,632.695 crore has been used under the scheme in the state. To the minister added that the number of beneficiaries covered in Rajasthan’s Ganganagar district under PM-Kisan is 1,45,799, while in Dausa district, the number stands at 1,71,661.
Replying to a query on recovery of money from ineligible farmers under the scheme in Maharashtra, Tomar said the Centre has recovered around Rs 78.37 crore as on 11th March 2021.
When asked about government plans to include fishermen under the scheme, Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Minister of State for Fisheries said that already fishermen are supported under Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana with the highest ever investment of Rs 20,050 crore.
He said under Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampadan Yojana, a livelihood support of Rs 4,500 (that includes beneficiary's contribution of Rs 1,500 & Government’s share of Rs 3,000) is given during fish ban & lean period for socio-economically backward fishermen of both marine & inland.
