Vijayawada:Telugu Desam floor leader and Narasaraopet MP Lavu Srikrishna Devarayalu has informed the Lok Sabha that over 62,000 farmers in Andhra Pradesh are not receiving benefits from the Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM Kisan) scheme.
Though 41,84,000 farmers are eligible for the scheme, only 41,22,000 are currently getting the benefits, he said.
Devarayalu attributed this discrepancy to the lack of updates to the Kisan Nidhi Policy over the past five years.
He explained that the eligibility criteria for the scheme have not been revised since its inception. Only those farmers whose land was registered between December 2018 and April 2019 are allowed to be the beneficiaries.
However, many farmers have since transferred their land to their children through gift deeds or sales, and this led to a stoppage of the assistance.
During the session, the MP pressed the central government for answers as to when the data would be updated and when the remaining eligible farmers could expect to receive the benefits.
In response, Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan acknowledged the concerns. Chouhan stated that plans are in place to benefit an additional one crore farmers through the PM Kisan scheme.
The updates would be made as soon as relevant information is received from state governments, the central minister said.
