The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved that the ambit of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) would be comprehensively extended. With this decision, all land holding eligible farmer families (subject to the prevalent exclusion criteria) would avail of the benefits under this scheme.
The revised scheme is expected to cover around 2 crore more farmers, increasing the coverage of PM-KISAN to around 14.5 crore beneficiaries, with an estimated expenditure by Central Government of Rs 87,217.50 crores for the year 2019-20.
“The Cabinet decision pertaining to expanding the ambit of the PM-KISAN marks the fulfilment of a major promise made by the Prime Minister to the people of India in the run-up to the 2019 Parliamentary elections. The BJP manifesto too had mentioned this major policy decision”, reads a PIB release.
It may also be noted that certain operational issues like lack of updated land records in Jharkhand and lack of Aadhaar penetration in states of Assam, Meghalaya and J&K have also been resolved.
