SRINAGAR: The Government of India has revealed that 7,830 undeserving persons in Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory have received payouts under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, or PM-KISAN scheme till July 2020.
In response to an application filed by noted activist Venkatesh Nayak under the Right to Information Act-2005, the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare has revealed that J&K UT received Rs 5.52 crore in the “ineligible farmers” category.
The reply, a copy of which is in possession of news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), reveals that 3,384 “Income Tax payees” received Rs 2.99 crore payouts under the scheme.
According to analysis carried out by Nayak, among the Union Territories, J&K received the highest amount of payouts in both undeserving and IT payees categories( Rs 8.51 crore) followed by Delhi ( Rs 55.80 lakh) . Interestingly undeserving farmers in Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu received Rs 42.68 lakh.
The PM-KISAN scheme was launched on February 24, 2019, with an aim to augment the income of the farmers by providing support to all landholding farmers’ families to enable them to take care of expenses related to agriculture and allied activities as well as domestic needs.
Under the PM-KISAN Scheme, an amount of Rs 6000 per year is released in three 4-monthly installments of Rs 2000 each directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.