Beneficiary count under ‘PM Kisan’ drops 45% in one year in Punjab

Ruchika M Khanna

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Chandigarh, February 23

The number of beneficiaries under the PM Kisan in Punjab, the flagship scheme of the BJP-led NDA government, has dropped by over 45 per cent in the past one year. This is the steepest decline in beneficiaries among all states.

Dip in number

2022-23 17.07L

2023-24 9.33L

According to data available with The Tribune, the number of beneficiaries under the scheme has dropped from 17.07 lakh in 2022-23, to 9.33 lakh in 2023-24, a decline of 45.3 per cent. The data was shared by Union Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda during the just-concluded session of Parliament.

The deletion of such a huge number of beneficiaries has not gone down well with leaders of various farm unions, who are already on the warpath with the Centre over the non-fulfilment of their demands.

“Nowhere is the cost realisation on the sale of any product, without taking into account the money spent on inputs, considered as the farmers’ income. But here, the income is being gauged only from J-forms that are uploaded on the Punjab Mandi Board website. These forms give only the amount paid to a farmer for the crop bought from him. The cost of inputs is so high and if that is deleted from the money given to the farmer for his produce, there will be minimal profit,” Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan, general secretary of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) said.

Jagmohan Singh Patiala, general secretary of the BKU Dakaunda, said the souring relations between the Centre and Punjab was the reason for such discrimination against farmers. “Just as the Centre has stopped the Rural Development Fund to the state, it is not willing to give financial aid to Punjab’s farmers,” he said.

Rajinder Singh Deepsinghwala of the Kirti Kisan Union said Punjab farmers were being forced to pay the price for spearheading the farm stir in 2020-21. “The Centre was forced to withdraw their corporate-favouring farm laws. It is thus that beneficiaries from the Central scheme are being reduced in such huge numbers in Punjab,” he said.