New Delhi: In a big shocker, it has been found that 7 lakh farmers in UP may have to return money received under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme's 10th instalment due to ineligibility of terms and conditions, a newspaper report has said.
As per a report in the Hindustan Times, these 7 lakh farmers are found to be either paying income tax for earnings from other sources or are not eligible to get cash benefit of Rs 2000 per instalment. Under the PM KISAN Scheme, an amount of Rs 6000 per year is released in three 4-monthly instalments of Rs 2000 each directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.
The HT report, quoting officials said that the above mentioned farmers will “Such ineligible beneficiaries will still have some window to return the money till the state assembly elections are over. After that, they would start getting notices for returning the money voluntarily or be ready for recovery.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi released 10th instalment of financial benefit under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme via video conferencing on January 1.
This enabled the transfer of an amount of more than Rs 20,000 crore to more than 10 crore beneficiary farmer families. During the programme, Prime Minister also released equity grant of more than Rs. 14 crore to about 351 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), which will benefit more than 1.24 lakh farmers. Prime Minister interacted with FPOs during the event. Union Minister Shri Narendra Singh Tomar and Chief Ministers, LGs, Agriculture Ministers and farmers from several states were linked to the event.
The Prime Minister said that PM Kisan Samman Nidhi is a big support for India’s farmers. If we include today’s transfer, more than 1.80 lakh crore rupees have been transferred directly to the accounts of the farmers, Modi had said.
Who are eligible to get benefits under the PM-KISAN Scheme?
Under the PM KISAN scheme, an income support of 6,000 per year in three equal instalments is being provided to all land holding farmer families. Definition of family for the scheme is husband, wife and minor children. Hence, if both the husband and the wife applies for PM Kisan, both can't get Rs 6,000 benefit each. The beneficiary amount is for the entire family, hence either of the two has to give up on the amount.
ln the beginning when the PM-KISAN Scheme was launched (February, 2019), its benefits were admissible only to Small & marginal Farmers' families, with combined landholding upto 2 hectare. The Scheme was later on revised in June 2019 and extended to all farmer families irrespective of the size of their landholdings. The Central Government had notified a decision to extend the benefit of Rs 6,000 per year under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme to all 14.5 crore farmers in the country, irrespective of the size of their landholding.
Who are excluded from the PM-KISAN Scheme
All Persons who paid Income Tax in last assessment year are excluded from the PM-KISAN Scheme. Those excluded from the PM-KISAN also include institutional land holders, farmer families holding constitutional posts, serving or retired officers and employees of State or Central government as well as Public Sector Undetakings and Government Autonomous bodies. Professionals like doctors, engineers and lawyers as well as retired pensioners with a monthly pension of over Rs 10,000 and those who paid income tax in the last assessment year are also not eligible for the benefits.
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