Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: PM KISAN

Mains level: Success of the DBT schemes

pm kisan

The number of farmers who received the 11th installment of funds from the Prime Minister’s Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) had fallen by 67%.

What is PM-KISAN?

The PM-KISAN Yojana is a government scheme through which, all small and marginal farmers will get up to Rs 6,000 per year as minimum income support.
It is a Central Sector scheme with 100% funding from GoI. It has become operational since 1^st December 2018.
Under the PM-KISAN scheme, all landholding farmers’ families shall be provided with the financial benefit of Rs. 6000 per annum per family payable in three equal instalments of Rs. 2000 each, every four months.
The definition of the family for the scheme is husband, wife, and minor children.
State Government and UT administration will identify the farmer families which are eligible for support as per scheme guidelines.
The fund will be directly transferred to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.

Note: Aadhaar was made optional for availing the first instalment (December 2018 – March 2019). But now it is mandatory.

Who are NOT eligible for PM-KISAN?

The following categories of beneficiaries of higher economic status shall not be eligible for benefit under the scheme.

All Institutional Landholders

Farmer families that belong to one or more of the following categories:

Former and present holders of constitutional posts
Former and present Ministers/ State Ministers and former/present Members of Lok Sabha/ Rajya Sabha/ State Legislative Assemblies/ State Legislative Councils, former and present Mayors of Municipal Corporations, former and present Chairpersons of District Panchayats.
All serving or retired officers and employees of Central/ State Government Ministries
All superannuated/retired pensioners whose monthly pension is Rs.10,000/-or more. (Excluding Multi-Tasking Staff / Class IV/Group D employees) of the above category
All Persons who paid Income Tax in the last assessment year
Professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, and Architects registered with Professional bodies and carrying out the profession by undertaking practices.

Note: It is not so easy to remember all such exclusions. But one must be able to recognize them by applying pure logic and thumb rule. This can be well understood from the PYQ given.

Plus, West Bengal is yet to implement the PM-KISAN scheme while the farmers have completed their registrations!

Why in news?

Ans. Fall in number of beneficiaries

PM Kisan was one of the largest Director Benefits Transfer schemes in the world and certain higher income categories of farmer families were excluded from the benefits.
But 67% reduction in overall beneficiaries clearly points to exclusion of eligible beneficiaries too.
Only about three crore farmers in India had received all the 11 instalments.

How are states responsible?

The responsibility of maintaining the data of beneficiaries, remained with the States.
The Scheme extensively uses digital technologies to verify eligibility of farmers.
States/ UTs upload the data of eligible farmers after verification of the farmers, in terms of eligibility and exclusion criterion prescribed under the scheme.
The data of farmers so uploaded by States goes through several validations, through the portals of UIDAI, PFMS, Income Tax Portal and NPCI.

Try this PYQ:

Q.Under the Kisan Credit Card Scheme, short-term credit support is given to farmers for which of the following purposes? (CSP 2020)

Working capital for maintenance of farm assets

Purchase of combine harvesters, tractors and mini trucks

Consumption requirements of farm households

Construction of family house and setting up of village cold storage facility

Construction of family house and setting up of village cold storage facility

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1,2 and 5 only

(b) 1,3 and 4 only

(c) 2,3,4 and 5 only

(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

Post your answers here.
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