BHUBANESWAR: AS a large number of farmers of the State are deprived of the Central assistance under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan), Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday urged the State government to ensure expeditious compliance of procedural formalities to extend the benefit to left out farmers.
Expressing concern over inconsistency in distribution of input assistance to farmers, Pradhan in a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said, “Non-disbursement of due benefits under PM-Kisan to many needy farmers of Odisha, especially in the backdrop of hardship caused by Covid-19 pandemic, is disheartening and depriving them the government support when they need it most.”
Even as over 40.5 lakh farmers of the State have been registered under PM-Kisan, only 24.79 farmers, which is 61 per cent of the total beneficiaries, received payment of `2,000 each from the December 2020 release of the 7th instalment.“This is not happening for the first time. The same trend of low fund releases can be noticed during disbursement of previous six instalments,” the letter said.
While only 9.73 lakh (24 pc) farmers received the first instalment, the number increased to 29.92 lakh (74 pc) in the second. The number declined to 28.77 lakh (71 pc) during the third dose with a further slide to 25.61 lakh (63 pc) in fourth and 21.55 lakh (53 pc) in fifth instalment. There was a marginal increase during disbursement of the sixth dose with 23.38 lakh farmers (58 pc) getting the benefit.
This inconsistency in delivery of the direct benefit to the farmers which aim at augmenting their income is primary due to non-compliance to procedural requirements and administrative oversight of the State government officials, he said. He said farmers, especially small and marginal farmers have been the prime focus of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mission for doubling farmers’ income. The Central government has taken a slew of measures in the last six years to improve the economic prospects of the ‘Annadata’, PM-Kisan being one of them.
As per the scheme, it is the responsibility of the State government to identify beneficiaries, upload details of the farmers on the web portal for direct transfer of the funds to the beneficiaries accounts.“I seek your personal intervention for ensuring expeditious compliance to requisite procedural formalities as per the scheme guidelines to see that the due financial benefit reach the beneficiary farmers,” Pradhan said.