The Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi, far from being a samman, is an apaman for farmers. Frankly, it would have been all right if the government had made no declaration at all. After all, this was an interim Budget. I would have been happy if the government had simply supplied answers to some of the following questions:
How much has the farmers’ income increased in the first three years of the supposedly six-year mission to double the farmers income? Why has the government not declared the data on farmer suicides? How much procurement was done on the minimum support price under the much-celebrated PM Aasha scheme? Why has the coverage under PM Fasal Bima Yojana shrunk instead of increasing? What is the government doing about the menace of stray animals all over the country? Rs 6,000 per family per year amounts to an income support of Rs 500 per family a month. This is less than old age pension prevailing in at least more than half the states. This amounts to Rs 3.30 per day for a five-member family, not enough even for a cup of tea.
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