Mamata Banerjee on Thursday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to direct the Union ministry of agriculture to release funds under the PM-Kisan scheme for eligible farmers in Bengal immediately.
“I had written earlier on 31.12.2020 to the Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare on providing benefits of PM-Kisan (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi) Scheme to the farmers of the State of West Bengal. Several communications were also made from the State government... However, no concrete response has yet been received from the Ministry on this,” the chief minister wrote.
Sources in the agriculture department said Mamata’s move was considered to be smart as it would put pressure on the Centre to release the doles. The BJP had used the PM Kisan scheme to campaign against the Trinamul Congress in the Assembly polls, alleging that the Mamata government was depriving 72 lakh farmers of the benefits of the central scheme.
In December last year, the state government had agreed to implement the scheme after more than 21 lakh farmers had applied for the same.
The chief minister wrote that the state had already verified 14.91 lakh farmers’ applications but no fund had been transferred so far.
According to the state government, all formalities for 9.84 lakh farmers were completed and they are ready to get benefits under the Public Financial Management System (PFMS).
The PFMS is a platform for e-payment of subsidy under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to both Aadhaar-based & non-Aadhaar-based bank accounts.
“Out of 21.79 lakh farmers who had registered for the scheme as per letter on Union Agriculture Minister, dated 6th November, 2020, 14.91 lakh data have been uploaded in portal, which were duly verified and of which 9.84 lakh data are ready for PFMS,” read Mamata’s letter.
The chief minister also put pressure on Modi, pointing out that the Centre should also release two years’ arrears to the farmers along with this year’s entitlement as he had assured Bengal’s farmers of the same during his election rallies.
“I would like to further impress that during your recent visit to the State, you gave repeated assurances on releasing the arrears amount of Rs 18,000 to each farmer, but till date, no fund has been received by the State of West Bengal or the farmers,” the chief minister wrote.
Sources said Mamata had pointed out the issue as the PM had promised that two years’ backlog of Rs 12,000 and this year’s Rs 6,000 for each farmer would be given at one go once the BJP came to power in the state.
“If the PM says amount due in the past two years would be given to the farmers, there must be a way to clear the arrears even if the state did not join the scheme for two years. The PM now has to prove that he is not a Prime Minister of the BJP but all Indians,” said a source.
The chief minister also pointed out that her government had disbursed Rs 1,498 crore to 57.67 lakh farmers under the state’s own Krishak Bandhu scheme announced in December 2018.
“This point was raised by the chief minister only to make it clear that the state has a verified database of more than 57 lakh farmers. If the Centre wants to bring more farmers under the scheme, the state would readily verify the names. This would also put the Centre under pressure,” said a source.
