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An amount of more than ₹4,352.49 crore, which is 2 per cent of the total amount transferred to all the beneficiaries under the PM-KISAN scheme, has been reported to have been transferred to ineligible beneficiaries.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, said a standard operating procedure (SOP) has been devised and circulated to States for getting the refunds from the ineligible beneficiaries.
Besides, a facility has been created on the web portal through which any individual farmer can refund the money. So far, an amount of ₹296.67 crore has been recovered from ineligible beneficiaries, he said.
Eligibility of farmers was initially based on their self-declaration and after verification of their details by State/UTs.
Also, only essential fields were made mandatory for registration. Soon after successful initiation of transfer of benefits to farmers through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system, rigorous checks and balances were added using technology and by developing SOPs, modules, validation by other systems (UIDAI, Income Tax), and by making other fields mandatory such as Aadhaar, mobile number, land details, etc.
Further, integration with pensioners and employee records has also been enabled, Tomar said.
The funds are released based on the data received from the States/UTs which goes through many levels of validation, including Aadhaar authentication. The purpose of making the Aadhaar authentication mandatory in PM-KISAN was to strengthen and further refine the database of the scheme by introducing another level of validation.
Aadhaar authentication, though increases the probability of the beneficiary being eligible, does not guarantee it as there are other reasons such as the exclusion criteria of the scheme which can render a beneficiary ineligible despite being Aadhaar authenticated, Tomar said.
Seed availability
To another separate query, Tomar said 498.83 lakh quintals of seeds were available to farmers during 2021-22 against the requirement of 465.36 lakh quintals.
The Centre coordinates with the States in meeting their seed requirement and availability through the mechanism of bi-annual zonal seeds review meetings and national conferences on agriculture before each sowing season. For future seed planning, the government asks States/UTs to prepare a seed rolling plan to ensure the availability of seeds, he said.
To another question on providing high-quality seeds, the Minister said the government has approved a pilot project for hybrid seed mini kits distribution of mustard through National Seeds Corporation (NSC) during Rabi-2021-22 under the National Food Security Mission-Oilseeds (NFSM-OS). Hybrid seeds of rapeseed and mustard have been distributed in seven districts of five States to the farmers through the State department of agriculture on free of cost, he said.
Horticultural crops output up 10 per cent
Replying to a query, he said the production of horticulture crops in the country has been increased by 10 per cent over the last five years from 2016-17 to 2020-21.
According to the third advanced estimates for 2020-21, the production of horticulture crops stood at 331.04 million tonnes (mt). However, the production was at 300.64 mt during 2016-17, he said in the reply.
‘Operation Greens’
In a reply to another question, Pashupati Kumar Paras, Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries, said ₹60.58 crore has been expended under the Central sector scheme of ‘Operation Greens’ till March 15 of 2021-22. The budget allocation for the fiscal is ₹74.50 crore. He said the scheme is demand-driven and no State-wise/district-wise budget is allocated under it.
The Ministry has been implementing it since November 2018 to promote FPOs, agri-logistics, processing facilities and professional management for tomato, onion and potato (TOP) crops.
The objectives of the scheme include reduction in post-harvest losses; enhancing value realisation of farmers; price stabilisation for producers as well as consumers, and increase in processing facilities and value addition in the value chain of TOP crops.
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