Under the PM-Kisan scheme, income support of Rs 6,000 per year is paid to land-holding farmer families in three equal instalments of Rs 2,000.
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Bihar government has termed over 81,000 farmers ineligible for availing the benefits of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme. According to the reports, the state government has asked the state-owned banks, to expedite the process of collecting refunds from these farmers. Reportedly, the central government also found these farmers, ineligible for the PM-Kisan scheme as they are providing the income tax.
Alok Ranjan Ghosh, the director of the Agricultural Department, Bihar also informed about some details regarding this matter. He told PTI, “After proper scrutiny, a total of 81,595 farmers (45,879 income tax payees since 2020 and 35,716 for other reasons) have been identified as ineligible beneficiaries in Bihar. The state’s agriculture department has asked all the banks concerned to expedite the process of collecting the refund amount worth around Rs 81.6 crore from the farmers.” PM-Kisan is a scheme initiated by the central government in which the income support of Rs 6,000 per year is paid to land-holding farmer families in three equal instalments of Rs 2,000.
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Under the PM-Kisan scheme, the state government identifies those land-holding farmer families that can be considered eligible for their help. After the government completes the process, they deposit the money into the bank accounts of the farmers. Recently, when this scheme was scrutinised, it was found that about 81,000 ineligible farmers received financial assistance from the government. After they found it, the government initiated the process to collect the funds from these farmers.
According to reports, the banks have been tasked to serve notices to the ineligible farmers for refunding the amount received from the government. Banks have also been ordered to stop the farmers from withdrawing the money as well from their accounts.
A similar incident occurred last year when nearly 12 lakh ineligible farmers received benefits under the PM-KISAN scheme in Assam. The state government has informed the Gauhati high court indicating a massive scam in the farmer flagship programme.
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A high court division bench comprising Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Soumitra Saikia had asked the Assam government to file a detailed status report on the case.
