The Government of India’s Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi initiative for all farmers in the country that was launched two years ago has benefited as many as 23,464 farmers in Manipur’s Tamenglong district till date. However, several deserving farmers are reportedly left out of the scheme, which suggests that the scheme is yet to reach maximum number of actual beneficiaries.
The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi was launched by the Union Agriculture Ministry in 2019. The scheme entitled each farmer who owns a cultivable land up to 2 hectare with financial benefit of Rs 6,000 per year to all beneficiaries. The monetary aid for the farmers is given in three equal instalments in every four months of a financial year through direct payment in the beneficiary bank account.
As per official data, in all, 24,745 farmers from Tamenglong district of Manipur have so far registered for the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme. Of it, 23,464 farmers have received monetary benefits of the scheme as of date.
Why the 1,281 farmers did not receive the benefit of the Central Government scheme? Here are the two main reasons:
Non-functional of bank accounts: One of the major reasons due to which the remaining farmers could not avail the benefit of the scheme is the non-functional of bank accounts.
Name in Aadhaar and bank account: Another reason cited for rejection of applicants of the scheme is name of the person on his or her Aadhaar card and bank accounts often fail to match. Owing to it, cash amount which is entitled to them could not be transferred into the beneficiary account.
Official sources told this Imphal Free Press correspondent that of the 24,745 farmers registered for the scheme, 10,933 farmers are from Tamenglong block.
Of the total 10,933 beneficiaries, 1356 farmers got full payment of Rs 6,000 per year in four instalments, while 8,669 beneficiaries received partial payment and 90 applicants were rejected due to discrepancies in the name of bank account holder and other required documents.
Interestingly, on further investigation by this IFP correspondent, it was found that maximum of the beneficiaries of the scheme in Tamenglong block are people living in the revenue area under Tamenglong CT (with 6172 farmers registered) which includes Tamenglong Ward No I-X, where most of the people do not have their own field, except Inriangluang village which falls under Tamenglong Ward No VI to X.
The area with the second highest number of beneficiaries is Bhalok village with 460 registered farmers, while Wairangba village has 402 registered farmers as beneficiaries of the scheme.
Reportedly, many deserving farmers are yet to register to avail the Central Government scheme owing to various reasons, including lack of awareness.
Sources from Tamei sub-division informed that Tamei block has 5,235 beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi where 493 farmers had received all payment while another 4,363 farmers got partial payment and 379 beneficiary’s applicants were rejected due to problem with the applicants’ bank accounts and other required documents.
Tamei sub-division headquarter has the highest numbers of registration with 805 beneficiaries of the scheme while Langmei village has 362 beneficiaries and Tamah village with 339 beneficiaries in Tamei block. The sources further revealed that many deserving farmers in the Tamei block also are yet to register to avail the monetary assistance from the Central government.
Meanwhile, Tousem block has 8,577 beneficiaries registered under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi where 828 farmers had received full payment while another 6,440 farmers got partial payment and 809 applicants were rejected due to similar problems with bank account and other documents.
Phaitol village with 820 beneficiaries is the highest number of registration in Tousem block, followed by Tousem village with 653 beneficiaries and Thiulon village with 437 beneficiaries.
The sources further revealed that many deserving farmers in the Tousem block also are yet to register to avail the monetary assistance from the Central government under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sammann Nidhi.
