Centre Asks Odisha To Send List Of Farmers Under PM-Kisan Scheme

The Centre has set July 31 as the deadline for Odisha government to send the list of farmers to avail benefits of the PM-Kisan scheme, according to state Agriculture and Farmers Empowerment minister Arun Kumar Sahoo.

He, however, said there is no clarity on inclusion of large farmers under the PM-Kisan scheme.

"The Centre has sought the list of farmers from Odisha by July 31. They have decided to include 46 lakh small and marginal farmers from the state in the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PM-KISAN) scheme as per the 2011 Agriculture census," the minister said on Friday.

Though the PM-Kisan scheme was launched by the Centre on February 24 this year, the state government has so far sent a list of only 12,45,000 farmers to the Centre. Of them, 9,36,139 have so far received the first installment of Rs 2,000 as financial assistance under the PM Kisan scheme.

The money could not be transferred to the bank accounts of remaining farmers due to lack of Aadhaar-linking and other reasons, sources said.

About 50 lakh farmers, on the other hand have received the financial assistance of Rs 5,000 (first installment) under Odisha government's Kalia scheme.

While a farm household is entitled to get Rs 10,000 per year for two crops (Kharif and Rabi) under the state government's Kalia scheme, a beneficiary under PM-Kisan is entitled to get Rs 6,000 in three installments a year.

Odisha BJP vice-president Samir Mohanty criticised the state government for not sending the list of farmers to the Centre.

"The BJD government is scared of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity and therefore didn't send the list of farmers to Centre. As the elections are now over, they should rise above politics and send the list for the welfare of farmers," Mr Mohanty said.