Over Two Crore Farmers Get First Installment Under Modi’s Farm Income Support Scheme
Agriculture minister says some states are holding back from rolling out the scheme and will pay the price in the elections.
The central government transferred the first installment of Rs 2,000 each to more than 2 crore farmers so far under the ambitious Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said on Wednesday.
In the Interim Budget 2019-20, the central government had announced the PM-Kisan scheme under which Rs 6,000 per year will be given in three installments to 12 crore small and marginal farmers holding cultivable land up to 2 hectares. It promised to give the first installment of Rs 2,000 by March.
On Feb. 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially launched the scheme in Uttar Pradesh by transferring the first tranche amount to over 1 crore farmers. “Many states are seriously showing interest to implement the scheme and sending the data. So far, over 2 crore farmers have been benefited,” Singh told reporters.
Some states such as West Bengal, the minister said, are not keen to roll out the scheme and therefore not providing the data. “To such states, I only urge to keep the politics aside else the electorate will teach them a lesson.”
Asked about a large number of vacancies in top leadership positions at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Singh said the recruitment would be done in a transparent manner now as the entire process has been digitised unlike manual process earlier.
On protest by ICAR staff over pay parity, the minister said the matter is being looked into by his junior minister.
The minister said the government has shifted the farm policy approach from production-centric to income-centric. Farmers have begun to understand and are going in a big way toward income-oriented farming.