A Parliamentary panel has voiced concern over the exclusion of landless and tenant farmers from the Modi government's flagship initiative PM-Kisan, the income support scheme for farmers.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture, chaired by BJP leader P C Gaddigoudar, noted that farmers in the north-eastern states, who till community land, have been included in the PM-Kisan initiative under which farmers receive Rs 6,000 per year as income support in three instalments of Rs 2,000 each.
“However, the same benefits are not available to the tenant farmers and farmers tilling panchayat/government land whose name is not recorded in government,” the Committee said adding that depriving the landless and tenants farmers from the scheme would be “disservice to them”.
As many as 9.6 crore farmers have been registered to receive benefits under the PM-Kisan initiative that was launched on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections, prompting opposition Congress to accuse the government of bribing farmers.
The Committee asked the government to examine the issue of of extending the scheme to landless and tenant farmers in coordination with the states within three months.
The government has distributed more than Rs 50,000 crore among farmers since 2018-19 till date and has set a target of ensuring that the benefits of the scheme reach 12 crore farmers.
The benefits under PM-Kisan has reached farmers across all states except West Bengal where the Trinamool Congress government was yet to submit a list of beneficiaries to the Centre.
According to the government the benefits of PM-Kisan have reached 8.3 crore unique beneficiaries and efforts were on to ensure complete coverage of farmers under the scheme.
The Agriculture Ministry informed the Committee that there were facing issues such as non-availability of land records, non-transference of land to heirs in case of deceased landholders, non-availability of proper records after mutation of land in Punjab in enrollment of farmers under the scheme.