6.65 lakh farmers lose PM Kisan scheme benefits

Hyderabad: About 6.65 lakh farmers lost the PM Kisan scheme benefit due to their failure in updating e-KYC (know your customer) norms. The lack of awareness among farmers and the negligence of the agriculture department in ensuring that farmers update their details were cited as reasons.

Sources said the process to update eKYC norms was simple. Farmers just needed to provide their Aadhaar and mobile phone numbers and link them to complete the eKYC process online.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN), eligible farmers are provided Rs 6,000 per year in three equal instalments every four months. The scheme was launched in February 2019 but was implemented from December 2018

While about 70 lakh farmers in the state get the government's Rythu Bandhu benefit, only 32.72 lakh farmers got the benefit of the 12th instalment of the PM-KISAN in the August-November period.

In all, 39,38,432 farmers have registered for the scheme. Around 6.65 lakh farmers lost Rs 133 crore due to non-updation of eKYC.

The Centre is expected to release the 13th instalment by the end of the month or in early January, and asked farmers to update their eKYC by December 15.

Official sources said less than 60 per cent of the farmers had updated their eKYC. With less than 10 days remaining, it is feared that lakhs of farmers would lose this benefit again.