State to conduct fresh survey to identify beneficiaries

OFFICIALS SAY CRITERIA USED FOR STATE’S DEBT WAIVER PROGRAMME WON’T BE OF MUCH HELP SINCE IT TOOK INTO ACCOUNT DEFAULTING LOAN AMOUNT

CHANDIGARH:THE Punjab government will carry out a fresh survey to identify the beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme rolled out in the 2019 Union budget to give assured income to farmers.

As per the scheme, a farmer who owns up to 2 hectares (4.90 acres) of agriculture land will get ₹6,000.

Ready with the first instalment of ₹2,000 to every beneficiary family from December 1, 2018, to March 31, the Centre has asked all states to send information by February 28.

The state government has conducted surveys during its debt waiver programme that started last year but senior agriculture department officials said it will not be of much help.

“The survey we conducted as part of the state’s debt waiver scheme was on the basis of

defaulting loan amount that farmers owed to banks. But in case of the Centre’s newly launched scheme we need to find out beneficiaries on basis of the 2-hectare land criterion,” said additional chief secretary (agriculture) Viswajeet Khanna.

As per an estimate, there are at least 4.24 lakh farmers in Punjab who own up to 2 hectares (4.90 acres) agricultural land and will get a total of ₹255 crore as part of the scheme. Of 4.24 lakh farmers who own up to 2 hectares, there are 1.54 lakh in marginal category (who own less than one hectare) and 2.70 lakh small farmers (who owns less than 2 hectares).

In the first instalment (from December 1, 2018, to March 31), ₹85 crore will be directly credited into the farmers’ bank accounts.

“We will identify every single farmer by procuring data from the revenue and agriculture departments,” said Khanna.

As per the scheme, land division after February 1 will be taken into consideration, and the farmers have to wait for five years to be on the beneficiary list.