Goa Govt ties up with India Post to get farmers enrolled in PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme

The Goa Government has tied up with India Post to get 11,000 farmers enrolled in the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sanman Nidhi scheme, Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant Kavlekar said on Friday. In a press conference with Postmaster General Vinod Kumar, the deputy CM said that postmen will go to the homes of these farmers with enrollment forms.

'21,000 are eligible for this scheme'

"A total of 11,000 Goan farmers who could not enrol so far for PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, are being reached to their doorstep through the Postman. The local postman who we are used to seeing bringing mail to our doorstep so far will come to fill the form for the 11,000 farmers in the state who are eligible for this scheme as per the department records," said Chandrakant Kavlekar, who is also the Agriculture Minister of the state.

"There are 38,000 Krishi cardholders in Goa, out of which 21,000 are eligible for this scheme. Last year, the Agriculture department has conducted two drives whereby 10,000 farmers out of eligible 21,000 have been enrolled for the scheme. There was a question of how to approach the remaining 11,000 farmers. With this question, we approached the India posts who reverted with a positive response and said that their postman will go door to door and get the forms filled," he added.

'Only for economically weaker farmers'

This is the first such exercise in India to enrol farmers in the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme, whereby the postman will be utilised to benefit farmers. "We will make more such runs so that Farmers of Goa benefit from Agriculture schemes and they are not left behind due to lack of connectivity or any other reason. We will simplify other agriculture schemes in the coming days to that farmers are benefited outright" said Agriculture Minister on the occasion.

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"All 255 post offices in Goa and 300 staff are involved in this initiative. We have been able to collect 5,000 forms so far," said Kumar. Nevil Alphonso, Director of Agriculture said that the government employees, current and past elected representatives, well to do farmers are not eligible to avail benefits under this scheme. "This PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme where the farmers directly received direct benefit transfer of Rs 2,000 in three instalments every year, is for the economically weaker farmers," he said.

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(With agency inputs)