Fake farmers who are getting benefits from Pradhan Mantri -KISAN pension scheme
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
RAJYA SABHA
FAKE BENEFICIARIES UNDER PM-KISAN PENSION SCHEME
Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE be pleased to state:
(a) whether many fake farmers who are getting benefits from PM-KISAN pension scheme have been identified in the country;
(b) if so, the number of such fake farmers identified, State-wise;
(c) the action taken against those fake farmers; and
(d) the steps taken to improve infrastructure in PM-KISAN pension scheme?
( SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR )
(a) to (d): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT IN RESPECT OF PARTS (a) TO (d) OF THE RAJYA SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 54 FOR 5.2.2021 REGARDING FAKE BENEFICIARIES UNDER PM- KISAN PENSION SCHEME.
(a): The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) is not a pension Scheme. It is an income support scheme, under which funds are transferred into the accounts of the eligible beneficiaries directly through Direct Benefit Transfer. The structure of the Scheme inherently comprises of mechanism for exclusion of errors on the basis of continuous verification and validation of data of beneficiaries by various authorities. However, during the verification process, it was found that an amount of Rs.2326.88 crore was transferred to 32,91,152 ineligible beneficiaries including income tax payees. Few instances have been reported from states where the credentials of block/district officials have been misused to approve the applications of ineligible farmers under PM-KISAN.
(b): The State of Karnataka has informed that 2,03,819 wrong registrations have been identified by the State and FIR lodged accordingly. Tamil Nadu has informed that nearly 6 lakh registrations have been identified as ineligible due to wrongful activity and from these Rs.158.57 crore has been recovered till now. In Gujarat, nearly 7000 beneficiaries have been identified as ineligible due to wrongful activities in the state.
(d): Steps taken to improve infrastructure under PM-KISAN are given below:
(i) PM-KISAN Portal has been integrated with UIDAI and beneficiaries of States/ UTs are Aadhar authenticated except for Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Meghalaya and Assam who are exempted till 31.03.2021.
(ii) PM-KISAN Portal has been integrated with Income Tax database to identify beneficiaries who are Income Tax Payees. All the identified Income Tax Payees are marked as ineligible as per the scheme. Hence, are excluded from receiving the benefits under the PM-KISAN.
(iii) Standard Operation Guidelines have been issued for recovering money from Ineligible beneficiaries. A refund module has also been developed on the PM-KISAN portal which is used across the states for recovering money from these ineligible farmers.
(iv) As per operational guidelines physical verification of 5 % beneficiaries has to be carried by States/ UTs. The necessary instructions have been issued to States/ UTs. Accordingly, a module for physical verification has also been developed on the PM-KISAN portal.
(v) Instructions have been issued to States/ UTs to carry out the Social Audit component of the operational guidelines of PM-KISAN and display the list of all the beneficiaries under PM-KISAN at every gram panchayat.