Uttar Pradesh tops PM Kisan payout with 40% share of Rs 2,000 crore

Four million of a total 10 million farmers getting first installment hail from state; payment facilitated directly to bank accounts at click of a button by PM Modi

Uttar Pradesh, the top beneficiary of the PM Kisan minimum income guarantee scheme for small and marginal farmers, has also cornered the lion’s share of the total disbursals under the scheme, which was formally launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Gorakhpur on Sunday.

Of the 10 million pan India beneficiaries, who received their first instalment of Rs 2,000 under the scheme, more than 4 million, or 40 per cent, belonged to UP alone. The payment was facilitated directly to the bank accounts at the click of a button by Modi.

Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PM Kisan) is targetted to benefit over 120 million small and marginal farmers across India, of which UP accounts the maximum number of 21.4 million farmers, or nearly 18 per cent, of targetted beneficiaries.

The state, which elects the maximum number Lok Sabha members at 80, led with more than 40 per cent of its farmers comprising the first batch of beneficiaries, collectively receiving over Rs 800 crore of the total Rs 2,021 crore disbursed so far.

“We have provided the details of about 10.5 million beneficiaries to the Centre under PM Kisan, of which more than 4 million received their first instalment of the payment on Sunday. The process for the remaining farmers is already on,” UP agriculture minister Surya Pratap Shahi told Business Standard.

He informed the state has also speeded up the preparation and validation of the detail of the remaining 11.4 million farmers before forwarding them to the Centre for processing and disbursal of their first instalment going forward.

PM Kisan is estimated to cost the exchequer Rs 75,000 crore annually. It guarantees an income of Rs 6,000 annually, payable in equal instalment of Rs 2,000 every four months.

Addressing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Kisan Morcha national convention while launching the flagship scheme, Modi had advised the state governments to expedite the process of enlisting farmers under the scheme and sending details to the Centre for processing disbursals.

Besides, the PM had assured the remaining beneficiaries would receive their first installments directly in bank accounts in the coming weeks even as he warned farmers to remain vigilant about the alleged rumour mills of the opposition parties. He also slammed, without taking names, some states trying to sabotage the ambitious scheme for political reasons and warned against attracting the wrath of people in coming polls.

With the farmers’ outreach through the scheme, the ruling BJP subtly laid out its template for the coming Lok Sabha polls, replacing the development agenda of 2014 with the farm narrative. This comes at a time when opposition Congress has been harping on farm loan waivers, especially after the Grand Old Party tasted success in recent assembly polls in the Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.