No names sent by West Bengal for PM-KISAN fund transfer: Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Thursday said the West Bengal government has not sent any name of small and marginal farmer for the transfer of the first installment of Rs 2,000 under the PM-KISAN scheme, while Congress-ruled states too are not cooperating.

In the interim Budget 2019-20, the central government had announced the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme under which Rs 6,000 per year will be given in three instalments to 12 crore small and marginal farmers holding cultivable land up to two hectares. In a series of tweets, Jaitley said the Union Government has released the first instalment of Rs 2,000 to more than 2 crore small and marginal farmers under PM-KISAN Scheme within 11 days of the launch of the scheme. "However, the spread of beneficiaries is very uneven across states. Why are some Congress ruled states and West Bengal not co-operating with PM-Kisan? Why are they letting down their farmers?," the minister said. In one of the tweets, Jaitley said 'names sent' to the Centre by TMC-ruled West Bengal was '0' and that by Madhya Pradesh was '298'. Also, Karnataka, which has a JD (S) - Congress government, has sent only '60,023' names of farmers who are eligible for PM-KISAN. The government has earmarked Rs 20,000 crore for disbursal among 12 crore farmers under the scheme in the current financial year.