The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, better known as PM Kisan scheme, under which marginal farmers with up to two hectares of land are electronically given Rs 6,000 annually in three equal instalments, has seen 61,04,877 failed transactions between February 1, 2019 and June 30, 2021.
However only 34 per cent or 20,88,010 transactions out of these failed transactions have been successfully reprocessed back to the beneficiaries during the said period, according to sources.
Under the scheme, the promised amount is given in three equal instalments of Rs 2,000 each after every four months to small and marginal farmers.
Sources in the Agriculture Ministry said that the percentage of failed transactions between February 2019 (when the scheme was launched by the Centre, after it was announced in the interim budget of that year) and June 2021 was less than one per cent or 61,04,877, out of the total of 68,76,55,195 transactions done under PM Kisan scheme during that period.
However what stands out is the fact that out of those 61,04,877 failed transactions, only 20,88,010 transactions or just 34 per cent of them have been successfully reprocessed back to the farmers, according to the Agriculture Ministry's own figures.
Also, as the scheme was specially launched to benefit small and marginal farmers, it is all the more interesting to note that according to the provisional numbers of the 10th agriculture census 2015-16, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are the two states which account for the largest number of operational holdings or in other words, have the largest number of small and marginal farmers.
In this light, according to Ministry of Agriculture's figures, out of the 10,95,225 failed transactions pertaining to Uttar Pradesh during the above-mentioned period of PM Kisan scheme, only a paltry 8 per cent or 91,908 transactions were reprocessed back to the beneficiaries.
Similarly in Bihar, out of the total number of 1,38,909 failed transactions under the ambitious scheme, only 9,493 or a meagre 6.8 per cent transactions were reprocessed back to the farmers.
Small and marginal farmers with less than two hectares of land account for 86.2 per cent of all the farmers of the country, according to the agriculture census of 2015-16.
Under the PM Kisan scheme, the definition of a family of a small and marginal farmer includes husband, wife and minor children.
It is the responsibility of the concerned state governments to ensure that failed transactions are successfully reprocessed to the farmer's bank account, if they have failed in the first attempt.
The states also have to identify the beneficiary farmer families as per the eligibility criteria of the PM Kisan scheme.
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