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Bhubaneswar: It could emerge as a big blooper for Odisha. The State figures out as the lone State in the country to record a sharp dip in payment success rate under Pradhan Mantri Kishan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) for the period of August – November this year.
As per the data available with Union Agriculture Ministry, in the fiscal year of 2020-21, Odisha, which had recorded a high payment success rate of around 96 per cent under PM-KISAN for the period of April – July, saw a big drop in the payment success rate to 57 per cent of the farmers under the scheme during the period of August - November.
Sample This
During the period of April – July this year, a total of 36.76 lakh farmers in the State had received the PM-KISAN assistance, when the total data on eligible beneficiaries sent to Centre was over 38.45 lakh. This boils out at a success rate of around 96 per cent.
Cut down to the second period of August – November. The total number of farmers who have received payment under PM-KISAN dropped to mere 22.9 lakh. Meanwhile, the total registered beneficiaries in the State had risen to over 40.48 lakh. The success rate then comes out at around 57 per cent.
As per observers, such a dip in the pandemic year could ring trouble for Odisha government, especially when the tempers of farmers are fired up across the nation, including Odisha, over the new farm bills and MSP.
Moreover, it’s only last year that the Odisha government had taken a big decision to limit the annual direct cash support to the farmers in the State to Rs 10,000 only. While Odisha government had decided to sanction a sum of Rs 4,000 per farmer household under the KALIA (Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation) scheme, the remaining Rs 6,000 will be sanctioned from the PM-KISAN.
Detail Scanning Of Data
As per the detailed data available with Union Agriculture Ministry for the period August - November, the total PM-KISAN beneficiaries in Odisha stood at over 40.49 lakh. But the payment was made to only around 2.29 lakh beneficiaries. Nearly 43 per cent farmer beneficiaries in the State didn’t receive the assistance during the period of Aug-Nov in the fiscal year of 2020-21.
For which, Odisha became the only State to achieve a lowest payment success rate of 57 per cent vis-à-vis the national average of over 98 per cent.
When contacted to State Agriculture Secretary Saurabh Garg to find out what went wrong in Odisha, he said, “I am unaware about any such glitch in PM-KISAN payment. I will look into the issue with urgency. The period has just ended in November. The problem could be with the cooperative banks in the State. My department will immediately analyse the reasons behind the glitches.”
