Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)
Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi
Context: Recently, the PM of India released the 11th instalment of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme. Government released Rs 21,000 crore in bank accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme to 10 crore families. Each beneficiary would get ₹2000 each in this instalment.
Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)
About Scheme:
- Background: The scheme was first conceived and implemented by Government of Telangana as the Rythu Bandhu scheme, where a certain amount is given directly to eligible farmers. The scheme has received accolades from various organisations for its successful implementation, including World Bank.
- Many economists suggest that this type of investment support is better than farm loan waivers.
- With the positive outcome of this scheme, Government of India wanted to implement it as nationwide project and it was announced during the 2019 Interim Union Budget of India on 1 February 2019.
- On 24 February 2019, Narendra Modi launched the scheme in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur by transferring the first instalment of ₹2,000 each to over one crore farmers
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Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)
PM-Kishan:
The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) is a Central Sector Scheme that aims to offer income support to all landholding farmers’ families in the country in order to help them meet their financial demands for agricultural and allied inputs, as well as home needs. The Government of India shall bear the entire financial burden for transferring benefits to designated recipients under the Scheme.
- Transparency: To ensure better transparency and information, the beneficiary lists would be displayed at Panchayats. Furthermore, States/UTs would notify the beneficiary of the benefit penalty via a system-generated SMS. He or she can also check his status in the PM-Kisan portal’s Farmers Corner.
- Benefits: All landholding farmers’ families will receive a financial benefit of Rs.6000 per annum per household under the PM-KISAN scheme, payable in three equal instalments of Rs.2000 each after every four months.
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Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)
Definition of Family:
“A family consisting of husband, wife, and minor children who own cultivable land as per the land records of the concerned State/UT”.
- If the beneficiary gives a false declaration, then the beneficiary is liable for the recovery of the transferred financial advantage as well as additional legal penalties.
- The scheme came into effect from December 1, 2018.
- The entire identification of the family rests with the state and Union Territory governments.
- To enrol for the scheme, farmers are required to approach the local revenue officer or PM-KISAN Nodal Officer who has been nominated by the state government. Farmers can also self-register themselves through the Farmers Corner on the PM-Kisan website, pmkisan.gov.in. or through CSC (Common Services Centres).
- Documents required: Aadhar is mandatory. Apart from Aadhaar, citizenship certificate, landholding papers and bank account details have to be submitted to the concerned authorities.
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Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)
Purpose of the Scheme:
The scheme is meant to provide income support to all landholding farmer’s families across the country and enable them to meet expenses related to agriculture as well as domestic needs.
- Changes Done: The Scheme initially provided income support to all Small and Marginal Farmers’ families having cultivable land up to two hectares, but later it was expanded to cover all farmer families irrespective of the size of their landholdings.
- This is the first time that farmers in West Bengal will also receive the cash transfer as the State government has not joined PM-KISAN yet.
Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)
Who is ineligible for this Scheme?
- The following categories of beneficiaries of higher economic status shall not eligible for this scheme. These are: –
- All Institutional Land holders.
- Farmer families which belong to one or more of the following categories:
- Former and present holders of constitutional posts
- Former and present Ministers/ State Ministers and former/present Members of Lok Sabha/ Rajya Sabha/ State Legislative Assemblies/State Legislative Councils, former and present Mayors of Municipal Corporations, former and present Chairpersons of District Panchayats.
- All serving or retired officers and employees of Central/ State Government Ministries /Offices/Departments and its field units Central or State PSEs and Attached offices /Autonomous Institutions under Government as well as regular employees of the Local Bodies (Excluding Multi-Tasking Staff /Class IV/Group D Employees)
- All superannuated/retired pensioners whose monthly pension is Rs.10,000/-or more (Excluding Multi-Tasking Staff / Class IV/Group D employees) of above category.
- All Persons who paid Income Tax in last assessment year
- Professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, and Architects registered with Professional bodies and carried out their profession by undertaking practices.
- According to Pm kisan website (Financial year 2021), Top three states whose farmers are getting benefitted by this scheme are- Uttar Pradesh>Maharashtra> Madhya Pradesh. Whereas Sikkim state is at the bottom in this list.
- Among union territories- Andaman & Nicobar> Delhi> Lakshadweep
Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)
Comparison with similar State Government Schemes:
| Aspect | PM-Kishan | Rythu Bandhu | Annadatha Sukhibhava | Kalia Scheme |
| Started By | GOI** | Telangana Govt. | Andhra Pradesh Govt. | Odisha Govt. |
| Unit | Per Family | Per Acre | Per Family | Per Family |
| Assistance | ₹ 6,000 per year in 3 instalments (Rs. 2000 each in every instalment) | ₹ 10,000 per year per Acre in two instalments | ₹ 9,000 Extra in addition to PM Kisan Benefit,
₹ 15,000 for Non-Beneficiaries of PM Kisan | Rs.5,000 per farm family over five seasons |
| Exclusion | Refer Image Above | No Exclusion | No Exclusion | No Exclusion |
| Cap | No Cap (Earlier Small & Marginal farmer
Up To 2 Hectares land) | Land holding of 51 acres agriculture land
and 21 acres dry land | No Cap | Small & Marginal farmer
Up To 2 Hectares |
| Eligible | Landowners only | Landowners only | Landowners + Tenant Cultivators | Landowners + Tenant Cultivators |
| Tenant Farmers | Not Covered | Not Covered | Covered | Covered |
** Government of India
Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)
Challenges to PM-Kishan:
- Inadequate financial support: The impact of PM-KISAN can only be realised through financial support that provides farmers with adequate purchasing power to meet their daily basic necessities. Also, the cash transfer is not linked to the size of the farmer’s land.
- Not reaching to all farmers: PM-KISAN is not pro-poor since recipients of the scheme seemed to be better off than the general rural population even before the lockdown.
- Exclusion of Landless farmers: The scheme excludes even poor rural households that do not own land.
- Implementation issues: PM-KISAN is an ambitious scheme that has the potential to deliver significant welfare outcomes, but the top-down approach of the government ignores governance constraints.
- Structural issue: If the budgetary allocations shift decisively in favour of cash transfers, they will be a cause for great concern for other long-term budgetary commitments in agricultural markets and areas of infrastructure such as irrigation.
Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)
Way Ahead: There is a strong case to include landless tenants and other poor families. An alternative bottom-up strategy and well-planned implementation mechanism would allow bottlenecks to be identified and rectified at the local level SEE HER