TAD NewsDesk, Orissa: The Centre released the 7th instalment of the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme of Rs 2000 in the past months but there are still a lot of farmers deprived of the benefit in Orissa.
According to official sources, as per the data available with Union Agriculture Ministry, payment for the December-March period of 2020-21 fiscal has been made to the accounts of 24,79,794 farmers against the total registered beneficiaries of 40,50,115. About 39 per cent (pc) of the beneficiaries have not received payment due to problem in data validation.
After the PM-Kisan was launched on February 24, 2019, as many as 37,00,578 farmers registered their names under the scheme. Of them, 36,70,489 received the first phase assistance for December-March period of 2018-19. However, the number of beneficiaries came down to 31,58, 589 during the release of the second instalment. There was further dip in the number to 23,97,723 during the disbursement of the third instalment and 20,76,894 for the fourth dose while 20,03,185 farmers got the fifth instalment under the scheme. It was found that only 20,01,292 farmers received a net sum of Rs 400.26 crore in the sixth instalment.
State BJP general secretary Golak Mohaptra blamed the State government for the discrepancy. Inspite of an increased number of applications, the centre has not been able to provide the right amount to the farmers because of discrepancy and missing data.
He added that data anomaly is the leading cause which lets the application gets cancelled on its own.
Agriculture Minister Arun Sahu has assured the Assembly that the list of eligible beneficiaries will be made public. Even after more than one and half years, the list is yet to be finalised.
Mr Mohaptra added
“We failed to understand how the State government identified 53 lakh farmers for KALIA when it is not able to provide a correct list of farmers to the Centre.”
The timeline of the scheme could be mapped as follows:
Downward trend
- First phase assistance: 36,70,489 farmers
- Second instalment: 31,58, 589
- Third phase: 23,97,723
- Fourth : 20,76,894
- Fifth: 20,03,185
- Sixth: 20,01,292
Source: The Indian Express
