NEW DELHI: Amidst the ongoing agrarian protest, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually address farmers from six states on Friday and release the next batch of financial aid Rs 18,000 crore from the PM-Kisan scheme. The PM’s session with farmers is a part of the government’s efforts to reach out to the farmers who are on protest for nearly a month against the three central agriculture laws.
Modi had released the first tranche in 2019 whose beneficiaries were thousands of farmers, largely selected from Punjab. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that over two crores farmers have registered to attend the online programme on Wednesday. The Centre commemorates the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on December 25 as “Good Governance Day”.
Nine crore beneficiaries of the PM Kisan Nidhi scheme will get the next instalment on Friday, Tomar added. “The Prime Minister will release the next instalment of financial benefit under PM-Kisan via video conferencing. With the push of a button, the PM will enable the transfer of more than Rs 18,000 crore to more than nine crore beneficiary farmer families,” the government said in a media statement.
“The Prime Minister will also have a conversation with farmers from six different states during the event.”
During the meeting, it stated, farmers will share their experiences regarding the scheme as well as various other initiatives taken by the Centre.
Recently, Modi had addressed farmers of Madhya Pradesh when the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government disbursed compensations for the crop loss due to hailstorms. The Prime Minister had said that he would speak to them again on December 25 in detail. In the face of the agitation against the farm laws, the government is seen working overtime to garner support of the legislation even while Tomar has said that the government is open for talks with the agitating farmers.
Reaching out to tillers
Under the scheme, Rs 6,000 per annum is provided in three installments to small and marginal farmer families having combined land holding or ownership of upto 2 hectares. The states and the UTs will identify the farmers who are eligible for drawing the benefits