Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg has said that the government would start disbursing substantial amount under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi’ (PM-KISAN) scheme for small farmers in February itself as beneficiary data is already in place. He also said that in the interim budget 2019-20, the government announced transfer of Rs 6,000 per year to 12 crore farmers holding cultivable land up to 2 hectare directly into their bank accounts from this year itself. Besides, the government has already earmarked Rs 20,000 crore for disbursal among 12 crore farmers under the scheme in 2018-19.
Garg informed said that the government last year released Agriculture Census 2015-16 and most states have moved to electronic record-keeping. He also said that the work which the agriculture department now would be doing is to relate these holdings to the families which will receive the assistance. He said “they are very confident that they will do with the state governments very soon and they expect to make disbursements of substantial amount in the month of February itself. That is the expectation and confidence of the (agri) department.”
Economic Affairs Secretary further said that supplementaries would be presented in the current session to seek Parliament’s nod for spending additional Rs 20,000 crore for the scheme. He also said that the ongoing budget session is scheduled to conclude on February 13. Besides, he stated that the PM-KISAN scheme has been approved by the Cabinet and therefore the necessary approval for the administrative department to implement the scheme is also available. Emphasizing that agriculture department has already done the spadework, he said the 12 crore beneficiary number has been arrived at with the help of Agriculture Census Data 2015-16.