Suvendu Adhikari takes jibe at WB govt for 'depriving' farmers of PM-KISAN scheme benefits

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced to transfer nearly Rs 19,500 crore to 10 crore farmers across the country as the 9th installment of the revolutionary PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari took the opportunity to hit out at the TMC-led West Bengal government. He said that the West Bengal farmers are being "deprived "of the schemes launched by the Central government due to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's objection to direct transfer to the beneficiaries. 

The BJP leader informed that 26 lakh farmers of West Bengal would receive the benefit this time under PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana.

Explaining the alleged role of the TMC government in depriving WB farmers of their rights, he said, "Launched in 2018, farmers of WB are being deprived of the central schemes benefits due to the chief minister's objection regarding direct transfer to the beneficiaries."

"WB excels in promoting middleman culture and cut-economy. Complete authentic details of the remaining farmers are yet to be provided," he added. 

Earlier both Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had blamed Mamata over the same issue by stating that, "Didi does not want to uplift the status of the poor farmers for which she is not sending the names of the beneficiaries to the Centre."

TMC and BJP clash

In early August, as per the West Bengal government, the Central government had excluded 9.5 lakh farmers from a total of 44.8 lakh beneficiaries of ‘Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana'. 

The TMC government had written a letter to the Central government seeking an explanation of the exclusion of 9.5 lakh farmers.

A senior official of the West Bengal state secretariat had stated, “It is a matter of concern as to why such a large number of beneficiaries from Bengal have been excluded from the scheme. In order to know the actual reason we had written to the Central government". 

PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana

A central sector scheme of the government, Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi aims to provide income support to the farmers and their families. Initially, the scheme was introduced as the Rythu Bandhu scheme by the Government of Telangana where a certain amount was handed directly to the eligible farmers. Later, on 1 February 2019, during the 2019 Interim Union Budget of India, Piyush Goyal announced the implementation of this scheme as a nationwide project.

On February 24, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the PM-KISAN scheme in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. Under this scheme, all small and marginal farmers will be provided with income support of Rs 6,000 per year in three installments which will be deposited directly to their bank accounts. The total annual expenditure for this scheme is expected to be Rs 75,000 crore which will be financed by the Union Government.

(Image credit: PTI/REPRESENTATIVEIMAGE)