Mangaluru: The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PMKSNY) is one of the ambitious initiatives of the central government, which intends to provide a support price of Rs 6,000 per year to over 120 million small and marginal farmers who have a land holding of lesser than two hectares.
While farmers’ suicide has been a bitter reality for a state like Karnataka and also considering the fact that the state has a considerably good number of farmers with small landholding, one may expect the outstanding response for the scheme. However, what comes as a shocker is that only 17 farmers have been registered under this scheme from the state of Karnataka.
The website dedicated for the scheme shows that Uttar Pradesh, with a total of 1,00,09,163 beneficiaries stands first in the list of the states utilising the scheme.
As per the list, a total of 2,57,23,582 beneficiaries were registered under Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana throughout the country. Among the states, the highest number of beneficiaries enrolled under the scheme are in Uttar Pradesh, followed by Andhra Pradesh, wherein 32,07,462 farmers have registered. Though Nagaland and Chandigarh too have not done well, they are still better than Karnataka with 34 beneficiaries each.
The number may not be correct, say officials.
The officials in the Agriculture Department say that the number of beneficiaries being shown on the official website may not be correct. They say that the beneficiaries’ number is not updated from so many days and the exact number would be updated only after the Lok Sabha election.
Technical Assistant officer of National Food Security Mission in Agriculture Department Pradeep Kumar told newskarnataka.com that the official site of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana has been suspended for a temporary period as the election code of conduct has been placed now. “Initially, there was little confusion in applying for the scheme in Dakshina Kannada district and the officials were asked to register the beneficiaries offline. Later, they were told to register the beneficiaries online. Such confusion led to delay in enrolling beneficiaries into the scheme. However, the number of the beneficiaries being shown in the official website may not be correct as the district itself has registered over 2000 beneficiaries under this scheme”, he said.
Centre and State, both have failed: Raitha Sangha
State secretary of Raitha Sangha, Hasiru Sene Ravikiran Punacha, while stressing that the central and the state government have both failed in safeguarding the interest of the farmers, opined that as far as the scheme is concerned, it hardly makes a difference in the lives of the farmers.
“While the State government has failed to encourage the farmers to apply for the scheme, what I have noticed is that most farmers are reluctant to apply for the scheme as they feel that Rs 6000 per annum assured under the scheme is a meagre amount,” said Punacha.
Deputy Commissioner of the district Sasikanth Senthil when contacted informed that receiving an application under Kisan Samman scheme has been stopped due to election code of conduct which might be the reason for less number of beneficiaries. “However, the number of the beneficiaries shown in the website may not be correct as thousands of beneficiaries had applied for the scheme in Dakshina Kannada district alone. After receiving the application from the farmers, it was sent to the approval of concerned Village Accountants (VAs). As the election code of conduct has been in force now, the further procedures are pending”, he said.
With only nine days left for the Lok Sabha election, party leaders are busy campaigning for their candidates. Though the BJP leaders are highlighting their various schemes including Kisan Samman Yojana, the Congress claims that the BJP has utterly failed in fulfilling its promises made prior to the election and the BJP says that the central government schemes are not efficiently taken to the people by the state government. With an actual number of beneficiaries opting for the scheme still remaining to be a mystery, only time will tell if the scheme has helped the farmers or not.
