The number of unique beneficiaries under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) till date is nearly 8.36 crore farmer families, but another 1.2 crore farmer families, which applied for the scheme, have not received the payout because of discrepancies in land records or Aadhaar cards or failure to validate bank accounts, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
This takes the total number of identified PM-Kisan beneficiaries to approximately 9.56 crore, whereas the estimated landholdings in the country are 14 crore.
In a written reply to a starred question, Tomar said the government has disbursed ₹50,029.74 crore under the PM-Kisan scheme till date and the time to disburse the latest installment will be till March this year.
Technically speaking, this also includes the PM-Kisan payout of ₹8,654 crore made in the last trimester of 2018-19.
Curiously, at least in four States, the number of farmers who have applied for the PM-Kisan benefit, which is ₹6,000 per annum in three installments, is more than the number of landholdings. While the number of farmers in Punjab and Assam who have received the PM-Kisan benefit is more than the number of landholdings, in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, more people have applied, but not have got the benefit yet.
In the Union Budget 2020-21, the government has earmaked ₹75,000 crore – the same as in the current year – for the PM-Kisan scheme.