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PM-Kisan to play crucial role in doubling farmers’ incomes, says Tomar
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Tuesday, 25 February, 2020, 16 : 00 PM [IST]
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Our Bureau, New Delhi
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The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) Scheme is comprehensive and ambitious and will play a key role in doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022, as envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This was stated by Narendra Singh Tomar, minister for agriculture and farmers’ welfare, rural development and Panchayati Raj at a function held here recently to mark the first anniversary of the scheme.
He added that the Central Sector Scheme PM-Kisan was among the several new initiatives undertaken by Modi, focussing on the agriculture and rural development sectors.
Tomar said, “A Budget of Rs 75,000 crore has been provided in the current financial year for the PM-Kisan scheme, under which a total sum of Rs 6,000 each is being provided to farmers annually. More than Rs 50,850 crore has already been released.”
The minister added that more than 8.46 crore farmer families have been given the PM-Kisan benefits. He said the total number of beneficiaries to be covered under the scheme is about 14 crore, and the Government aims to cover 12 lakh farmers by the end of this financial year.
“Besides the Common Service Centres (CSCs), the ministry has launched online procedure for farmers’ enrollment,” he added.
Pointing out that the West Bengal Government had not verified the farmers’ data from state, Tomar appealed to the chief minister to expedite the process.
He said an estimated 70 lakh farmers of the state are eligible, of whom about 10 lakh farmers have applied individually online, but the entire database has to verified by the state government.
“Eligible farmers from the state can avail Rs 4,000 crore of benefits under the PM-Kisan Scheme once the state government furnishes the data,” Tomar added.
He said that the Prime Minister had declared that all Kisan beneficiaries will be given the Kisan Credit Card (KCC), so that farmers can easily take loans from banks. The Government has included the animal husbandry and fisheries sectors under the ambit of the KCC Scheme.
Tomar said a massive distribution drive will be held on February 29, 2020, during which KCCs will be issued to farmers at 20,000 bank branches spread across the country.
The Prime Minister will himself disburse Kisan benefits to select farmers and distribute KCC cards at the main function at Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh on this day.
Ten thousand new farmer producer organisations (FPOs) are being registered, and each will get a support of Rs 15 lakh from the government to promote agriculture.
Tomar said, “Under the leadership of Modi, the government has not only launched a slew of schemes towards boosting rural incomes, but also set in place an exhaustive implementation mechanism with transparent procedures and earmarked liberal funds.”
“As per the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee, the government has set the minimum support price (MSP) at one-and-a-half times of the production cost to farmers,” he added.
Tomar said the government is promoting organic farming and over six lakh hectare land has been brought under it.
On the occasion, he launched the PM-Kisan Mobile App, which offers farmers access to a host of features related to their benefits.
The farmers can view the status of their application, update or carry out corrections in their Aadhaar cards and also check the history of credits to their bank accounts.
Speaking on the occasion, Sanjay Agarwal, secretary, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare, said, “The Department will finalise by June 2020, a comprehensive farmers’ database, covering major schemes like the Soil Health Card, PM-Kisan and KCC.”
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