West Bengal: 9.5 lakh farmers left out of PM-Kisan scheme

KOLKATA: The reported omission of 9.5 lakh farmers from Bengal from the PM-Kisan scheme has prompted Bengal to write to the Centre questioning the move.
State agriculture minister Sobhandeb Chatterjee said, “We have written to the Centre to express our concern over the issue. Due to the fault of the Centre, Bengal farmers are being deprived. We want that Bengal farmers should not suffer only for some technical errors of the Centre.”
The PM Kisan scheme provides farmers income support of Rs 6,000 per year in three equal instalments. The fund is directly transferred to the bank account of the beneficiaries. None in Bengal has received this till now due to a Centre-state standoff over the issue. In May, the PM had released the eighth quarterly instalment of the scheme.
A Nabanna official said that names of 44.8 lakh farmers were sent, out of which 9.5 lakh names were not included. The data of these persons had to be corrected to make them eligible for PMKisan scheme.
The official added that from Bengal around 68 lakh farmers are likely to get the benefit of PM-Kisan if names are properly recorded. He said so far 24.3 lakh farmers' names from Bengal had been accepted. “However, till the data of the 9.5 lakh farmers are rectified the farmers will not get the benefit of PM-Kisan,” he added.
In Bengal, around 62 lakh farmers are getting benefits of the Krishak Bandhu scheme, which has been scaled up from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 recently.
CM Mamata Banerjee had earlier said all farmers of Bengal are covered under Krishak Bandhu scheme, whereas in PM-Kisan all farmers are not included. The CM had written to the Prime Minister soon after taking oath in early May regarding the PM-Kisan scheme for release of funds from the agriculture ministry to eligible farmers.