Lucknow: The Centre has debarred more than 15 lakh marginal and small farmers in Uttar Pradesh from availing benefits under the PM Kisan Samman Scheme following a lack of authentication of their identities at the time of registration. Under the scheme, farmers get an annual grant of Rs 6,000.
In a letter sent to all district magistrates and divisional commissioners on Sept 18, principal secretary, agriculture, Ravindra said the issue was earlier raised in Feb and then in April this year. The department has directed the district authorities to complete 100% data verification by adopting various strategies. Officials said that to achieve saturation under the PM Kisan Samman Yojana, a micro-plan should be prepared in coordination with the ongoing ‘Farmer Registry Campaign’ which will run until the end of Sept 2026. This will ensure 100% verification and data rectification of all pending cases at the district level in a time-bound manner. Officials said the verification process for these cases is completed and the data will be uploaded to the app by Sept 30.
He said the details of the farmers were to be formally authenticated and attested to bring them into the loop of benefits of the PM Kisan Scheme. This is a serious concern, Ravindra said. Ravindra said the administration and the farmers need to work coherently to remove the gaps by updating the missing information mentioned on PM Kisan portal which is in the public domain.
However, the recent review showed that little or no progress has been made in that direction. The department has also advised the authorities to ensure the campaign’s effectiveness, clearly define responsibilities at the block, tehsil and district levels and review daily progress. At the same time, a weekly review of pending cases at the district level should be conducted with the deputy director of agriculture and a review of pending cases at the tehsil level should be conducted with the tehsildars concerned.