Former president of Chhattisgarh BJP Kisan Morcha Sandeep Sharma said Congress, which had once mocked the ‘Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi’ (PMKSN) scheme, is now feeling pressure from farmers.

Given the party’s past position on the scheme, it should refrain from making “unwarranted comments against Central government for the sake of politics and to mislead people.”

He alleged that it is the Congress government which has denied the farmers of the state the benefit of PMKSN.

Instead of making all the 34 lakh farmers of the state beneficiaries of the scheme, only names of 17 lakh farmers have been uploaded in the portal, the BJP leader claimed.

“If the state government is genuinely keen to provide benefits to farmers, it should upload details of remaining 17 lakh farmers with their land holding, loan account and bank account number,” he added.

He claimed for the first time after independence, to provide emergency assistance to farmers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the scheme where each farmer was to receive three installments of Rs 2000 each.

First was released in June and second will be released by October 31 and third by March 2020.

“Congress indulged in politics, failing to digest the success of the scheme, and uploaded details of just 17 lakh farmers of the state. Had details of all the 34 lakh farmers of the state were uploaded they could have received a total of Rs 2100 crores in their account,” he went on the claim.

On Saturday, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in a letter to union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar urged him to release the first, second and third installments of ‘Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi’ for those farmers who have not received it.