Centre ropes CSC to speed up PM Kisan scheme enrolment

To ensure wider coverage of farmers’ income support scheme -- Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan), the Centre has now roped in Common Service Centre (CSC) to speed up the enrolment process.

The Ministry of Agriculture has tied up with CSC, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) under the Ministry of IT and Electronics, to fulfil the target of enrolling 14 crore marginal farmers across India.

“Farmers can now visit nearby CSCs to get enrolled and avail the scheme’s benefit. CSCs have also been given the mandate to make any changes in previous enrolment. Any farmer who is already a beneficiary and wants to make changes in his enrollment forms like address or nominee can visit CSCs to get it done,” said CSC Chief Executive Office Dinesh Tyagi. The CSC is special purpose vehicle set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology for delivery of government services.

PM-Kisan is 100% income support scheme funded by the Centre which was launched in December 2018. Under the scheme, an income support of Rs.6,000 per year is provided to all farmer families across the country in three equal installments of Rs.2,000 each every four months.

Tyagi said CSC has already been doing the enrolment work for PM Kisan Maan Dhan – a Centre-sponsored pension scheme for farmers. Now with the mandate for PM-Kisan, CSCs will emerge as a major social support centre for marginal farmers across India.

Agriculture Ministry sources said since its launch last year, only 7 crore farmers have been enrolled in the PK-Kisan scheme against the target of 14 crores. In a high-level meeting it was decided to rope in CSC to speed up the enrollment process. Till now local patwaris, revenue officers and Nodal Officer (PM-Kisan) nominated by the State Governments were responsible for enrollment of farmers. Similarly, the online self-registration mechanism for farmers also failed to pick up.