KOLKATA: The West Bengal government on Wednesday wrote to the Centre after applications of close to 9.5 lakh farmers from the state for the PM-Kisan scheme were rejected.The state government had uploaded the names of 44,89,831 farmers on the Centre’s portal for their inclusion in the Central scheme. Of that, 9,41,861 names were rejected. Applications of 24,31,885 farmers were accepted while 10 lakh applications are being verified.
The PM-Kisan scheme for peasants became the BJP’s poll plank in West Bengal ahead of the recent Assembly elections in the state. The party had accused West Bengal Chief minister Mamata Banerjee of blocking the scheme in the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had raised the issue repeatedly during their election campaign in Bengal in a bid to gain farmers’s support. In a letter to the Centre, the state government stressed that the Central scheme, under which `6,000 is provided each year to each applicants, should be extended to all the farmers whose names were uploaded by the state.
“We have sent a letter to the Union government a few days ago asking for the reason behind the decision to exclude names of about 9.5 lakh farmers. We have also demanded that the benefit be given to all farmers whose names we have uploaded. We are yet to get a reponse from the Centre,” said a government official at the state secretariat. “The Centre has accused our CM of blocking the scheme and depriving farmers of its benefits. Now they are depriving 9.5 lakh peasants. We will make it a political issue in near future,” a TMC leader said.