Agri minister Tomar asks states to speed up PM-KISAN scheme enrolment

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has asked state governments to soon complete the enrolment of all farmers under the flagship Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme.

Officials said around 90 million farmers are yet to enrol under the expanded PM-KISAN. The scheme was recently tweaked to include all farmers, irrespective of their land holdings.

Under the scheme, Rs 6,000 per annum is given in three equal instalments to eligible farmers.

The minister also urged states to expedite enrollment of farmers under the new pension scheme. The database generated through PM-KISAN would be used to target beneficiaries of the pension scheme as well.

In a video conference with state agriculture ministers, Tomar asked state governments to organise village-level campaigns to cover 10 million farmers under the Kisan Credit Card Scheme within 100 days.

The central government has already transferred the first payment of Rs 2,000 to 33 million farmers and the second instalment to 27 million farmers under the PM-KISAN, which would cost over Rs 87,000 crore a year to the exchequer.

"During the video conference, it was stressed that there should be 100 per cent enlistment of eligible beneficiaries by states/UT's, timely uploading of corrected data on the PM-KISAN portal and establishment of a proper redress mechanism," an official statement said.