Bhubaneswar: After not getting the desired support from Odisha and West Bengal, the Centre has now come up with a new mechanism to extend benefits of its ambitious Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) yojana to the intended beneficiaries.
The Centre has recently opened the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi portal where the farmers can directly register themselves for the scheme. As per official sources, the farmers can enroll themselves with a self-declaration of land holding.
Though a lot of farmers are getting financial assistance under Odisha government’s KALIA scheme, lakhs of farmers are still left out under the PM-Kisan yojana. The sole reason being the dilly-dallying attitude of the State government which is yet to submit a final list of farmers to the Centre, sources said.
The State government has provided a list of 30, 91,783 farmers to the Centre. Out of this, 30,26,024 farmers received 1st installment of PM-Kisan, while 9,34,797 farmers have got the second installment.
It is pertinent to mention here that Odisha government is providing monetary assistance under KALIA scheme to nearly 51 lakh farmers while it is targeting to include additional 24 lakh farmers in its own scheme.
It is being said that the Centre has come up with the self-registration process to put pressure on the States which are yet to extend or implement the PM-Kisan scheme in letter and spirit.
“Time and again, Odisha government has been misleading and cheating farmers. To give a befitting reply, farmers can directly register themselves on the Central portal,” said senior BJP general secretary, Prithviraj Harichandan.
Congress MLA Santosh Singh Saluja, “Fearing that the corruption and irregularities would be exposed, Odisha government did not submit the list of farmers. Now the Centre has come up with a new method where the farmers can directly register and seek benefits of under the PM-Kisan scheme.”
Responding to the allegations of opposition, senior BJD leader Pratap Deb said, “The allegations are completely baseless. There is no problem in farmers directly registering themselves. Odisha had submitted the list and it will submit the remaining data.”