Senior Congress MP Randeep Singh Surjewala raised in Parliament on Friday the issue of decreasing number of beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme. During the question hour, Mr. Surjewala asked the government whether it is looking at stopping the scheme slowly. The Centre said the scheme, on the other hand, reached more farmers over the years and those who have been dropped are income tax-paying farmers or government officials.
Mr. Surjewala said the agriculture census in 2015-16 estimated that the country has about 14.5 crore farmers but only 10.45 crore farmers received the eleventh instalment of the PM Kisan Nidhi. “The twelfth instalment has reached 8.42 crore. Why the number of beneficiaries has come down?” he asked.
Answering the question, Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Chaudhary said the scheme was started with a vision to help farmers. “It was started including all farmers. But under the guidelines, farmers who are paying income tax, who are government employees or those holding political positions are not eligible for assistance and their names were removed. The scheme is open for all farmers. We will provide the benefits to the farmers whose names are sent to us by the States,” Mr. Chowdhury said.
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