On February 24, 2019, PM-KISAN was launched to provide financial assistance to farmers. Under this scheme, a yearly financial benefit of Rs 6000 is transferred into the bank accounts of farmers’ families across the country via Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).
The scheme was initially designed for small and marginal farmers with up to 2 hectares of land, but the scope of the scheme was later expanded to include all farmers beginning on June 1, 2019.
Since the scheme’s inception under PM Kisan, there have been numerous technological and process advancements made to ensure that the greatest number of beneficiaries can benefit from it in the most efficient way possible.
As of 22 February 2022, benefits under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana have been provided to over 11.78 crore farmers, and funds worth Rs 1.82 lakh crore in various installments have been released to the eligible beneficiaries of this scheme across the country. Out of which Rs. 1.29 lakh crore has been released during the current Covid 19 pandemic period.
Process of Self-registration of beneficiaries has been made simple and easy through mobile app, PM KISAN official website and walk-ins through Common Service Centers (CSC) in order to give the maximum benefit to the farmers.
In case of ineligible beneficiary, the recovery mechanism has been made very smooth & transparent which does not require Demand Draft or physical cheque to be submitted by the state. The process includes auto-transfer from the state nodal department’s account to the Centre’s account which made this process very efficient and less time-consuming.
In order to solve farmers’ issues and problems, a holistic grievance redressal mechanism has been made which involves setting up a central Project Management Unit of PM Kisan Yojana at the Centre which does the overall coordination between all the stakeholders to streamline the processes. A centralized help desk has also been developed in order to support the beneficiaries regarding any issues faced during the registration process etc. Through this initiative around 11.34 lakh grievances have been received from farmers and over 10.92 lakh grievances have been redressed by the concerned state authorities.
Aadhar validation has been made mandatory in order to make the entire process transparent and authentic. As of now, Aadhar data has been seeded in the scheme for 11.20 crore beneficiaries.
In order to have an audited and authenticated user base, PM Kisan’s beneficiary database is regularly validated with the income tax payee database.