A year since its launch, the Modi Government's ambitious cash-for-farmers programme 'PM KISAN' (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi) has reached a saturation level due to some States' reluctance to adopt the Central scheme and implementation hurdles like linking with Aadhaar persisting.
There could be 2.13 crore more potential beneficiaries who are left out from the scheme as States like West Bengal and Bihar have not adopted the scheme.
With the enrolment of 9.74 crore potential beneficiaries, the new registration has reached a saturation level, sources said and pointed out that the scheme intended to cover 14 crore farmers.
As per the Agriculture Ministry's data, of the 68 lakh farmers from the West Bengal, about 10 lakh farmers have already self-registered for the scheme via the online portal of PM-Kisan. Bihar's potential is 158 lakh whereas data of only 59.7 lakh has been uploaded. Bihar has adopted a beneficiary application based approach which is delaying identification and upload.
According to Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, barring West Bengal and Bihar, all other States and Union Territories are implementing the scheme which has benefited 8.45 crore farmers so far in the country, against the target of 14 crore farmers.
On PM-Kisan portal, the centre has received data of total 9.74 crore farmers. The minister also launched PM-Kisan mobile App on completion of one year of the implementation of the scheme.
"States which have achieved 90 percent or more saturation have been asked to look at inter district variations while states to do 100 percent verification of 25 randomly selected villages in comparatively low saturation districts," he said.
The data says, only 9 farmers registered from Adaman and Nicobar Islands; 123 from Arunachal Pradesh; 121 from Chandigarh; 21 from Dadra Nagar Haveli; 633 from Delhi; 30 from Goa, 4902 from Himachal Pradesh;11 from Sikkim; 43 from Puducherry; 733 from Meghalaya and 1010 from Tripura.
According to sources, Aadhaar-based enrolment and cash transfers, slow internet connections in many rural centres, and messy land records have slowed the programme.
"Problems in Aadhaar authentication, or the process of validating the biometric identity with a beneficiary's bank account, have limited the number of potential payouts," sources added.
Aadhaar linking was optional for the first tranche that covered the December 2018-March 2019 period.
For the second instalment covering the period April-July 2019, Aadhaar authentication was compulsory, except for north-eastern States and the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir. On the first anniversary of launch of the Government's ambitious PM-Kisan scheme, Tomar on Monday launched a mobile app to broaden the reach of the programme that aims to provide annually Rs 6,000 to each eligible farmer.
Under PM-KISAN, the government provides income support of Rs 6000 a year to farmers with a valid enrolment, paid in three equal cash transfers of Rs 2000 - one every four months. It was launched on 24 February 2019, when the first instalment was paid.
Stating that the cash benefit under the scheme will not only help farmers but also boost the state economy, Tomar said: "Our officials have approached the state government in this regard many times. I have also written twice to the chief minister urging to join the scheme.
But no reply has come yet from the CM." Tomar said some states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Sikkim are slow in authenticating their farmers' data and the central government is pursuing with them seriously.
About 85 per cent of the farmers data registered under the scheme has been Aadhar verified, the rest will be completed soon, he added.
