NEW DELHI: Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar said on Monday that he would again request the West Bengal government not to keep farmers of the state deprived from the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, an ambitious scheme of the Modi government in which beneficiary farmers gets Rs 6,000 annually in three equal instalments.
Addressing media on the first anniversary of the scheme, Tomar lamented that farmers of all states and Union Territories are getting the benefits of this scheme but farmers of West Bengal are still deprived of it as the state government has not shown willingness to implement it in the state.
He said that as of now more than eight crore farmers have received benefits of this scheme while the central government targets to bring 14 crore farmers under this scheme.
Tomar said he had written letters to the West Bengal government several times requesting it to allow the farmers to get the benefit of the scheme.
Several thousands of farmers have already registered themselves on PM Kisan portal and if the state government allows the scheme the total beneficiaries would be around 70 lakh, he said.