PM-KISAN payout wrongly made to ineligible beneficiaries

PM-KISAN payments worth 1,364 crores have been wrongly made to more than 20 lakh ineligible beneficiaries and income tax payer farmers.

Try this PYQ:

Q.Under the Kisan Credit Card Scheme, short-term credit support is given to farmers for which of the following purposes? (CSP 2020)

Working capital for maintenance of farm assets

Purchase of combine harvesters, tractors and mini trucks

Consumption requirements of farm households

Construction of family house and setting up of village cold storage facility

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1,2 and 5 only

(b) 1,3 and 4 only

(c) 2,3,4 and 5 only

(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

PM-KISAN

The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PM-Kisan Yojana) is a government scheme through which, all small and marginal farmers will get up to Rs 6,000 per year as minimum income support.

Under the PM-KISAN scheme, all landholding farmers' families shall be provided with the financial benefit of Rs. 6000 per annum per family payable in three equal instalments of Rs. 2000 each, every four months.

The definition of the family for the scheme is husband, wife, and minor children.

State Government and UT administration will identify the farmer families which are eligible for support as per scheme guidelines.

The fund will be directly transferred to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.

Why in news?

When it was launched just before the general election in 2019, it was meant to cover only small and marginal farmers who owned less than two hectares.

Later that year, large farmers were included in the scheme as the government removed land size criteria.

Certain exclusions

However, certain exclusions remained.

If any member of a farming family paid income tax, received a monthly pension above 10,000, held a constitutional position, or was a serving or retired government employee, they were not eligible for the scheme.

Professionals and institutional landholders were also excluded.

Who are NOT eligible for PM-KISAN?

The following categories of beneficiaries of higher economic status shall not be eligible for benefit under the scheme.

All Institutional Landholders.

Farmer families that 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

All superannuated/retired pensioners whose monthly pension is Rs.10,000/-or more. (Excluding Multi-Tasking Staff / Class IV/Group D employees) of the above category

All Persons who paid Income Tax in the last assessment year

Professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, and Architects registered with Professional bodies and carrying out the profession by undertaking practices.

Note: It is not so easy to remember all such exclusions. But one must be able to recognize them by applying pure logic and thumb rule. This can be well understood from the PYQ given.