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Income scheme to cover fewer farmers
Why is it in the news?
- The Centre has revised the farmer income support scheme’s beneficiary target down to just under 12 crore from 14 crore.
- The income support scheme Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, was launched in the year 2019.
More in the news
- Benefit reach:
(1) So far, almost 8.5 crore farmers have benefited.
(2) Empirical evidence suggests that saturation level will reach around 10 crore families.
- The scheme gives land-owning farmer families an annual sum of ₹6,000.
- The Centre’s beneficiary estimate of 14 crore was initially based on the number of landholdings recorded in the agricultural land census.
- The revised estimate of 11.97 crore is based on the 9.84 crore who have registered themselves on the portal so far (although only 8.45 crore have received money so far), plus an estimated 2.13 crore beneficiaries left out, mostly from West Bengal and Bihar.
- States behind the reduction in beneficiaries numbers:
(1) West Bengal government has refused to join the scheme at all.
(2) Bihar government’s approach of waiting for applicants means more than 60% of potential beneficiaries are yet to register.
Source
The Hindu.