Around 3.10 crore small farmers have so far received the first tranche of Rs 2,000 each under the PM-Kisan scheme and 2.10 crore peasants have got the second instalment as well, costing Rs 10,500 crore to the exchequer, a senior Agriculture Ministry official said Tuesday.

However, the Election Commission of India (ECI) allowed the to transfer the first and second tranche of the payment to all those beneficiaries registered under the scheme before the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) that kicked in from March 10.

"About 4.76 crore farmers got registered under the PM-Kisan scheme before March 10. We have been able to disburse first installment to 3.10 crore farmers and the second installment to 2.10 crore farmers so far," the ministry official told PTI.

Total Rs 10,500 crore has been disbursed so far, comprising the first and second instalments, he said.

In the budget, the NDA government allocated a sum of Rs 20,000 crore for the 2018-19 fiscal under the scheme.

The scheme was formally launched at national level by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 24 at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh by transferring the first instalment to 1.01 crore farmers, amounting Rs 2,021 crore.

In Uttar Pradesh, the first instalment has been released to around one crore farmers so far, while in Andhra Pradesh to 30 lakh farmers.

The official further said that Punjab and Haryana are amongst the top beneficiary states as the two states have completed the registration of its farmers under the scheme.

Small and marginal farmers who hold cultivable land of up to 2 hectares are eligible under the scheme.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)