The Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM Kisan Samman Nidhi) fund has been drastically cut in the General Budget 2020 presented on 1 February by the Modi government. For the financial year 2020-21 starting from April 1, it has been proposal that a funds of about Rs 55 thousand crores will be released instead of 87 thousand crores.
This decision has been taken since that the amount spent by the government in the first phase of the scheme was much less than what was estimated. All 14.5 crore farmers have not been able to take money. According to the Ministry of Agriculture sources, till February 2, 8.38 crore people have received the money in their accounts so far. At the same time, the government will soon transfer 37 thousand crore rupees to 6.12 crore people. This money will , however, be given only to the farmers who pass Aadhaar verification.
When this scheme was started in December 2018, the money was given to small and marginal farmers. Only 12 crore farmers were covered under this scheme. Therefore, the budget was fixed at 75 thousand crores. However, before the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP promised that all 14.5 crore farmers will get benefits if the Modi government comes to power.
The BJP won and Prime Minister Narendra Modi fulfilled the promise in the first cabinet meeting of his second term. With this, the fund of the scheme was increased to 87 thousand crores.
According to the central government, in some states, this budget has been allocated for the current financial year based on the revised estimate. West Bengal is also included in these states. West Bengal has not yet implemented this scheme in their state. At the same time, some other state governments do not have enough data on farmers. Also, the estimated number of farmers who have benefited from this scheme has been reduced. There are about 71 lakh farmer families in West Bengal alone, out of which not a single family has been allowed to take money.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has proposed Kisan Rail for the transportation of perishable agricultural products like fruits and vegetables in the budget 2020. Under this, there will be a facility to take these products in refrigerated coaches. It is proposed to run special farmer trains under Public-Private Partnership (PPP). Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting the budget for the financial year 2020-21 also proposed several other measures for the benefit of farmers.
She said that for the perishable goods, the construction of the national cold supply chain will be made by the Railways in the PPP model. This will enable faster transportation of such products. She said that the government also proposes a refrigerated parcel van to carry perishable goods through select mail express and freight trains. Such temperature controlled vans are needed to carry perishable fruits, vegetables, dairy products, fish, meat, etc. for long distances.
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