CSCs asked to update data of eligible farmers

NEW DELHI: To speed up payments under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi minimum income support scheme, which provides for annual payout of Rs 6,000 to farmers in three equal instalments, the government has mandated common services centres (CSCs) to rectify discrepancies and update data of farmers registered for the scheme from Monday.

The finance ministry had recently asked agriculture ministry to immediately release unpaid instalments by September 30, aiming to boost consumption demand in rural markets.

“Since the third instalment has to be given only after Aadhaar authentication, we have to verify data before making payment,” said a senior agriculture department official, who did not wish to be identified. “A large number of discrepancies have cropped up owing to mismatch between names and details in the Aadhaar cards. We can’t make payments without rectifying them. Allowing CSCs to rectify discrepancies will help us speed up payments.”


PM KISAN chief executive Vivek Agrawal has asked states to verify data on immediate basis to transfer payments to farmers before the festive season begins.

The first instalment was transferred on the basis of any valid identification card, including driving licence, while for the payment of the second instalment, registration number of Aadhaar was mandatory and from third instalment onwards, Aadhaar seeding is mandatory. The first instalment was for December 2018-March 2019, the second for April-July and the third instalment is for August-November.

The payment of first instalment was swift because no Aadhaar verification was required. The government paid over Rs 13,000 crore to 65.4 million beneficiaries. For the second instalment, the number of beneficiaries so far has been 38.3 million, with a total payment of over Rs 7,600 crore. When it came to distribution of the third instalment, the number has dropped to 14.1 million, with a total payment of just over Rs 2,800 crore.