The Centre has recovered Rs 416.75 crore from the ineligible beneficiaries of the flagship scheme PM-Kisan so far across the country, Minister of State for Agriculture Ramnath Thakur said on Tuesday in the Lok Sabha.
State governments have been mandated to recover any amount transferred to ineligible farmers marked due to higher income groups such as income tax payees, employees of PSUs, State/Central Govt., Constitutional post holders etc., he said.
“An amount of Rs 416.75 crore has been recovered from the ineligible beneficiaries so far across the country,” the minister said in a written reply to the Lower House.
The Centre has disbursed over Rs 4.09 lakh crore through 21 installments since inception of the scheme in February 2019, he added.
Under the PM-Kisan scheme, a financial benefit of Rs 6,000/- per year is transferred in three equal instalments, into the Aadhaar seeded bank accounts of farmers through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.
Under the PM-KISAN Scheme, cultivable landholding is primaryeligibility criteria to receive benefit of the scheme subject to certain exclusions relating to higher economic status.
The minister informed that the government has undertaken various steps to identify ineligible or duplicate beneficiaries under the PM-KISAN scheme across nation.
The benefit under the PM-KISAN scheme is transferred to beneficiaries via Direct Benefit Transfer, based on verified data provided by States and Union Territories through the PM-KISAN portal.
To ensure transparency and efficient implementation, several technological measures have been introduced, including integration with PFMS, UIDAI, and the Income Tax Department. Further, Land seeding, Aadhaar-based payments, and e-KYC have been made mandatory to ensure benefits reach only to the eligible farmers.
The PM-KISAN database is also cross-verified with the PDS ration card database, UIDAI records (including deactivated Aadhaar due to death), and PFMS and Income Tax data for de-duplication.
“Benefits were additionally stopped in cases where more than one family member appeared to be enrolled, and where both previous and current landowners were found enrolled after land transfer through inheritance following the death of the original owner,” he said.
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