LUCKNOW: Around 21 lakh UP farmers have been found ineligible of receiving benefits under the PM Kisan Nidhi scheme but they have got the money already transferred to their bank accounts. Now, the state government is proceeding with the recovery of the money as per the rules.
A total of 2.85 crore farmers were selected under the Centre's Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme in the state, out of which 21 lakh beneficiaries have been found ineligible.
UP Agriculture Minister Surya Kumar Shahi said that among the ineligible beneficiaries are those farmers who pay income tax, do not own any land or husband and wife both are taking benefits of the scheme.
PM Kisan Samman Nidhi is a centre’s scheme with 100 per cent funding from the Central government. Under this scheme, income support of Rs 6,000 per year in three equal instalments of Rs 2000 each is provided to all land-holding farmer families.
The fund is directly transferred to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. However, the minister appealed to farmers to get all their land records verified and uploaded on the agriculture department’s portal by September 9 to be eligible to get the 12th instalment under the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi which could be
released by the Centre by this month's end.
Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture, Devesh Chaturvedi said that the agriculture and revenue departments were working day in and day out to verify the data of 1.62 farmers of the state who have been identified to get the benefit in the upcoming phase. The records of 1.51 crore farmers were already updated.
“The data of the remaining (around) 11 lakh farmers is being verified,” he said.
However, he assured that all the eligible farmers would get the benefit of the scheme. Those who would be left out in this phase would be taken up in the next phase, said the authorities concerned.
On February 24, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the scheme in Gorakhpur by transferring the first instalment of Rs 2,000 each to over one crore farmers of the state.