More than Rs 2,326 crore has been transferred to 32.91 lakh ineligible beneficiaries, including income tax payees, under the PM-KISAN scheme and state governments have registered cases against them, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said on Friday.
Under the PradhanMantriKisanSammanNidhi (PM-KISAN), the government provides income support to farmers by transferring annually Rs 6,000 in three equal instalments to eligible farmers directly into their bank accounts.
Tomar said the structure of the scheme inherently comprises of mechanism for exclusion of errors on the basis of continuous verification and validation of data of beneficiaries by various authorities.
“However, during the verification process, it was found that an amount of Rs 2,326.88 crore was transferred to 32,91,152 ineligible beneficiaries, including income tax payees,” Tomar said in a written reply to RajyaSabha.
He also mentioned that “few instances have been reported from states where the credentials of block/ district officials have been misused to approve the applications of ineligible farmers under PM-KISAN”.