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About 14.28 lakh ineligible beneficiaries in Maharashtra have received ₹1,754.50 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme till date, of which the government has recovered only ₹93.21 crore from only 1.04 lakh ineligible beneficiaries.
PM-KISAN is a Central Sector scheme with 100 per cent funding from Government of India under which income support of ₹6,000 per year in three equal instalments is provided to all land-holding farmer families, providing them socio-economic security. The amount is directly transferred to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries without any involvement of intermediaries.
Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Dhananjay Munde in a written reply to the members of the State Assembly recently admitted that in some of the cases in the State, the beneficiaries don’t even have agriculture land and still have received the funds under the scheme. There are some beneficiaries who pay income tax and still have received funds.
Recovery Drive
While denying that the amount to be recovered from ineligible beneficiaries has been recorded on the land records of the farmers, Munde added that the State Revenue Department is recovering the amount from ineligible beneficiaries in a time-bound programme.
According to the State government officials, recovery from the ineligible beneficiaries is on slow mode because the local politicos are not keen to allow government officials to carry on the recovery drive.
As of now, 76.55 lakh beneficiary farmers are eligible as they have completed all the technical requirements like linking Aadhar to bank account, updating information and KYC for receiving funds. Without KYC compliance, about 85 lakh farmers in the State will get the benefit of the scheme.
The data under the scheme is dynamic in nature. The States have been provided with the option to mark beneficiaries as eligible to ineligible and vice versa, after due verification. E-KYC of all the beneficiaries is also being done to verify their status. States have been asked to expedite the process for saturation of the scheme with all the eligible beneficiaries.
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