E-Paper
1.12 million PM Kisan fund transfers failed during lockdown: RTI data
Under the scheme, income support of ₹6,000 is annually provided in three equal instalments to small and marginal farmer families with combined landholding of up to 2 hectares
Over 1.12 million fund transfer failures were reported across the country under the PM-Kisan scheme during the Covid lockdown between March 23 and July 31. As many as 63,30,00, or over 56% of the failed transactions as of July 31, were successfully reprocessed but beneficiaries in the remaining 44% may not have received the money, according to information obtained from the agriculture department under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
PM-Kisan cash transfer scheme was launched in February 2019. Under the scheme, income support of ₹6,000 is annually provided in three equal instalments to small and marginal farmer families with combined landholding of up to 2 hectares.
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Madhya Pradesh accounted for the largest--64.55%--of failed transactions (72,90,00) followed by Maharashtra with 85,000 (7.54%). Karnataka reported over 55,000 failures, Bihar 51,000 and Uttar Pradesh 48,000 failures. “Together these five states accounted for almost 86% of the total fund transfer failures during the Covid-19 lockdown,” said activist Venkatesh Nayak, who filed the RTI application for information on fund transfers.
As many as 96% or 61,20,00 of failed transactions were reprocessed in Madhya Pradesh followed by Maharashtra 12,810 and Uttar Pradesh 1,986.
Nayak said the data given to him was until July 31. He added it may have been updated but is not publicly accessible.
An agriculture department statement issued after this report was first published said that the overall payment success to the beneficiary accounts under PM-KISAN scheme has been 98% since inception.
“The transaction failures which happen may be due to numerous reasons such as network failure, closure of bank account or death of the beneficiaries etc. Hence, in order to ensure that all the beneficiaries receive their instalments, standard operation guidelines are devised to reprocess the transaction failure cases and attempt sending the failed payment again,” the department said.
Venkatesh Nayak said the funds involved were not indicated in the response. “...if one were to assume that each case of transfer failure pertains to one instalment of ₹2,000, the total amount involved is more than ₹22.58 lakhs. However, how many beneficiaries were affected is also not known.”
Nayak said almost 44% of the failed transactions remained to be reprocessed. “...all of them might have been reprocessed successfully at the time of writing of these findings.”
(This report has been updated to reflect the response of the agriculture ministry)
