PM-Kisan: Uttar Pradesh to cover 29 million farmers

New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government plans to cover 29 million farmers under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi minimum income support scheme by the end of September. The BJP-ruled state has revised its target after covering almost all of the 23.22 million farmers under the 6,000-a-year scheme as per the count of farmers in the 2011 Census.
In a letter sent to all district magistrates in the state on Monday, the UP government said records of 23.18 million farmers in the state had been fed into an online portal by district authorities for the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme. The number represents more than 99 per cent of the initial target of 23.22 million farmers as per the census. However, given that more farmers exist in the country's most populous state at present, many districts achieved more than 100 per cent of their target as per the census, including 120-130 per cent in districts such as Hathras, Etawah, Saharanpur and Agra, hence necessitating a "table-top exercise" to ascertain the actual number of farmers in the state.

In the letter, the UP government said that as per its estimates almost 29 million farmers in the state are eligible for the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme. "It is expected from you that by the end of September, the data of all farmers must be fed on to the online portal so that all farmers in the state can benefit from the scheme," said the letter.

UP has been the biggest beneficiary under the scheme so far, with nearly 16 million farmers getting the first instalment of Rs 2,000 into their bank accounts and 11 million getting the second instalment as well. The state proceeded with great speed after June following chief minister Yogi Adityanath's intervention to fix a deadline for the data of all 23 million farmers as per the 2011 Census to be uploaded on the central portal as soon as possible.