New Delhi: With an eye on farmers’ vote bank, the central government is mulling releasing the second tranche installment of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme between April-end and early May this year.
After transferring the first tranche in two instalments — one is already done for more than one crore farmers and the other is scheduled for April 1 for them — the Centre’s second phase money-transfer plan, which is much in advance of its proposed schedule, is aimed at consolidating the farmers’ sentiment towards the Narendra Modi-led government ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
As per the Centre’s proposal, the amount is being released in toto in three four-monthly instalments of Rs 2,000 each, to cover the total amount of Rs 6,000 for the year, at an annual outlay of Rs 75,000 crore. A sum of Rs 25,000 crore is fixed for each instalment, which has to be credited into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries through the direct benefits transfer (DBT) mode.
A top government source told Financial Chronicle: “We have been told that farmers are not happy with the first tranche of installment of the PM-KISAN scheme. So, the government is planning to extend its DBT plan for the second tranche of installments of the scheme in between April-end and early May this year.”
“A total amount of more than Rs 2,000 crore have already been released to more than one crore farmers’ families across the country in the first lot of installments in the first phase. Further releases for the first instalment to the remaining beneficiaries are being made by the Centre as well,” the source said.
The Election Commission is expected to announce the general election schedule in the second week this month. Once the poll schedule is announced, governments are not supposed to announce any scheme that may influence the voters. However, the Union government sees no reason to hold back the scheme.
“We don’t think there would be an issue of code of conduct for this scheme even after announcement of the election dates. For the betterment of the people, the government has every right to implement its existing or running flagship schemes as they have been announced much before the Election Commission’s decision.”
