Panaji: In a first-of-its-kind joint initiative, the Agriculture department has tied up with Indian Post Master General office so that postmen will act as agriculture envoys for enrolling Goan farmers under the Prime Minister Kisan Sanmaan Nidhi Scheme.
While briefing media persons on the occasion of announcement of the joint initiative with the Indian Post Master General office, Agriculture Minister Chandrakant ‘Babu’ Kavlekar, who is also the Deputy Chief Minister, said that this is a unique drive in the country to enroll farmers under the scheme wherein postmen will visit 11,000 farmers for enrollment.
He said that there are 38,000 krishi card holder farmers in the state out of which 21,000 are eligible for the PM Kisan Sanmaan Nidhi Scheme.
“After I took over as agriculture minister last year, the department enrolled over 10,000 farmers under the central scheme through two special drives. However, around 11,000 could not be enrolled for some reasons. Thus, we have tied up with the Indian Post Master General office to enroll remaining farmers under the central scheme,” Kavlekar said, adding the local postman who we are used to go to the villages to deliver letters at doorstep now will act as agriculture envoys in the state to reach out to the farmers.
The Minister said that the postmen will go door-to-door and get the forms filled for farmers under PM Kisan Sanmaan Nidhi Scheme.
Postmaster General of Goa Dr Vinod Kumar, Senior Superintendent of Post office Sudhir Gopal Jakhare, Secretary Agriculture Kuldeep Singh Gangar and director agriculture Nevil Alphonso were present during this joint press meet of India post and directorate of Agriculture.
“We will take more such initiatives so that farmers in Goa benefit from agriculture schemes and are not left behind due to lack of connectivity or any other reason. We will simplify other agriculture schemes in coming days so that farmers are benefited,” he said.
Post Master General Dr Vinod Kumar informed that 255 post offices spread over the nooks and corners of Goa and over 300 employees of Indian Postal Service are involved in the campaign.
“Over past 10 days, in a trial run we have been able to collect 5,000 filled forms and the joint exercise is a great success. Those farmers who don’t have savings accounts in banks, the postman or local post office opens their zero balance savings accounts in the India Post Payments Bank just by using the Aadhaar number,” he said.
The director of agriculture said that the government employees, current and past elected representatives, well to do farmers are not eligible to avail benefits under the scheme.
Under the PM Kisan Sanman Nidhi Scheme, the farmers directly receive Rs 6000 annually with Rs 2000 each in three installments every four months. This particular scheme is to support the economically weaker farmers.
