3.1 million farmers to miss out on annual cash benefit of ₹6,000

“Though 11.7 million farmers have applied for the cash benefits, 3.1 million have either not been able to comply with the criterion or complete the seeding process,” the official said, adding that the first instalment of the NSMN is also not expected to be released for at least four more weeks

Mumbai: Around 3.1 million farmers in the state will miss out on the annual cash benefit of ₹6,000 under the Namo Shetkari Maha Samman Nidhi Yojana (NSMN) scheme due to want of land, Aadhaar seeding as well as the non-compliance of the e-KYC, state government officials said on Sunday.

HT Image

In March, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who was the then finance minister in his budget, had announced the NSMN on the lines of the PM-Kisan scheme and said that it would benefit 11.7 million farmers. However, the state agriculture department has now realised that the actual beneficiaries are likely to be restricted to 8.6 million farmers.

“We have been fetching the farmers’ data from the PM-Kisan Yojana of the central government. It will be disbursed, however, our application is being created. According to the data from the central scheme, 8.6 million farmers have updated their accounts, though the number of eligible farmers for the scheme is 9.7 million. The remaining 1.1 million have either not completed their Aadhar seeding or land seeding, which is mandatory for the release of the money,” an official from the agriculture department said on the condition of anonymity.

The farmers while seeking the benefit under the scheme are expected to link their Aadhar number with their bank accounts and also provide the land records to prove their eligibility. The e-KYC has also been made mandatory to ensure that the benefits are going into the right hands.

“Though 11.7 million farmers have applied for the cash benefits, 3.1 million have either not been able to comply with the criterion or complete the seeding process,” the official said, adding that the first instalment of the NSMN is also not expected to be released for at least four more weeks

“The state government has made the provision of ₹4,000 crore for the scheme in supplementary demands passed in the monsoon session. The construction of the application for the disbursement of the fund is 60% ready, and the first instalment is expected to be paid in the next three to four weeks. The procurement of data through the application programming interface from the centre took some time delaying rolling out the scheme,” another officer from the agriculture Commissionerate said.

Anoop Kumar, additional chief secretary, agriculture, said that they are holding a review meeting on Monday, and the scheme will be rolled out at the earliest.