New Delhi: Narendra Modi signed the first file on Monday, June 10, a day after taking oath as Prime Minister for the historic third term. He authorised the release of the 17th instalment of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) set to benefit 9.3 crore farmers and distribute around Rs 20,000 crore.
“Ours is a government fully committed to Kisan Kalyan. It is, therefore, fitting that the first file signed on taking charge is related to farmer welfare. We want to keep working even more for the farmers and the agriculture sector in the times to come,” PM Narendra Modi said.
PM-KISAN, a central sector scheme, aims at providing financial assistance to cultivable landholding farmer families across the country, subject to certain exclusion criteria, to enable them to take care of expenses related to agriculture and allied activities as well as domestic needs.
Under the scheme launched in February 2019, just ahead of the previous Lok Sabha elections, an amount of ₹6,000 is transferred annually in three equal installments of ₹2,000 directly into the Aadhaar-seeded bank accounts of the farmers. Under the PM-KISAN scheme, the respective state or UT government is responsible for identifying the beneficiaries and uploading their correct and verified data on the PM-KISAN portal.
Over 2.42 lakh crore have already been disbursed to more than 11 crore beneficiary farmer families through various instalments. The scheme is applicable only for landholding farmers. The number of farmers whose land details are seeded on the PM-KISAN Portal is more than 9.53 crore.