Govt deposited Rs 3,000 cr under PM-KISAN scheme in accounts of over 42 lakh ineligible persons

Tribune News Service

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New Delhi, July 20

The Centre has transferred nearly Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 29,92,75,16,000 to be precise) into the accounts of over 42 lakh ineligible farmers under the PM-KISAN scheme, which it is now in the process of recovering.

The money was deposited in accounts of 42,16,643 ineligible persons, the largest number being in Assam, Tamil Nadu and Punjab, according to a written reply by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in the Lok Sabha to a question related to funds disbursal under the scheme

Under the PM-KISAN scheme, the Centre transfers Rs 6,000 each year to farmers across the country in three equal instalments.

The scheme has eligibility criteria, like the farmer should not an income tax payee. Tomar said Rs 2,992 crore is to be recovered from 42.16 lakh ineligible farmers who got money under the scheme.

The maximum number of such ineligible farmers who got the benefit are in Assam (8,35,268) followed by Tamil Nadu (7,22,271), Punjab (5,62,256), Maharashtra (4,45,497), Uttar Pradesh (2,65,321) and Gujarat (2,36,543).

The money to be recovered is around Rs 554 crore in Assam, Rs 437 crore in Punjab, Rs 358 crore in Maharashtra, Rs 340 crore in Tamil Nadu, Rs 258 crore in UP and Rs 220 crore in Gujarat.

Incidentally, around Rs 41 crore is to be recovered from 41,445 ineligible persons in Haryana, Rs 16.4 crore from 15,503 in Himachal Pradesh and Rs 328000 from 30 in Chandigarh.

Among the large states, the smallest number of ineligible beneficiaries are in West Bengal where Rs 76,000 has to be recovered from 19 persons.

“The structure of the scheme inherently comprises of mechanism for exclusion of errors on the basis of continuous verification and validation of data of beneficiaries by various authorities like Aadhaar, PFMS, or Income Tax database.

“However, during the process of verification it was found that benefit of the Scheme was transferred to some ineligible beneficiaries including some income tax payee farmers,” Tomar told the House.

The Government is implementing measures to ensure that the scheme is properly implemented to benefit genuine farmers, he said. Standard Operation Guidelines have been issued for recovering money from ineligible beneficiaries and identification of Income Tax Payees to States

Advisory has been issued to States to adopt measures during the registration and verification of farmers. SOPs for physical verification of beneficiaries have been also circulated, he added.