TIRUPPUR: Over 5,000 people who do not own land have been receiving financial assistance of Rs 6,000 under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM Kisan) in Tiruppur district since 2019. According to land verification records, shared by the agriculture department, reveals that 5,392 people are continuing to receiving the money even though they do not own land in their name.
The agricultural department completed the land verification process two months ago in ten blocks of the district. As per the records, there are 93,752 registered beneficiaries. Of these 72,009 beneficiaries own land in their name. Around 1,142 beneficiaries own ancestral property, and 914 beneficiaries are legal heirs holding lands.
Under the Exclusion category (IT assesses, govt employees etc) there are 8, 470 beneficiaries. They own land but have registered under the scheme. They would be removed from the beneficiary list as per the fresh guidelines issued by the Union government recently. However, a staggering 5,392 beneficiaries had no farm lands.
Expressing shock at the number of ineligible beneficiaries, K Velusamy, coordinator of the non-political farmers’ association (Avinashi) said, “Only those farmers who own land should be given financial assistance. But many people are hiding their identity and are registering as farmers to claim the benefits. Many fake beneficiaries were eliminated in the early stage. But it is sad to find more fake beneficiaries are continuing to get benefits.”
C Nallaswamy, secretary of federation of farmers association of Tamil Nadu, said, “For the past several years, I have been flagging the issues the PM Kisan scheme in Tamil Nadu, but officials did very little to address them. As a result, the number of ineligible people benefitting has grown. Not just in Tiruppur district, this is the situation across Tamil Nadu, fake beneficiaries are increasing in various agricultural schemes.”
When contacted, the joint director (agriculture department-Tiruppur division) M Mariyappan, said “We are streamlining the process of identifying real beneficiaries. During verification, many beneficiaries with no land were found. The report would be submitted to State government soon. Appropriate action, including recovery of money, will be taken.”