NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday released quotas of more than 18 billion rupees under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme to more than 9 million beneficiary farm families.
Under the PM-Kisan Scheme, a financial benefit of Rs 6,000 / – is provided to eligible beneficiary farmers, payable in three equal quarterly installments of Rs 2,000 / – each. The fund is transferred directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.
Amid ongoing protests by farmers, the prime minister also had a conversation with farmers from six different states during the event via video conference.
Several central ministers, parliamentarians, MLA and BJP officials were present in their constituencies and among the electorate to hear PM Modi’s interaction with farmers scheduled for the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Union Interior Minister Amit Shah was among the Delhi farmers; Union Minister for Road and Highway Transport Nitin Gadkari was in Silchar, Assam; The Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Piyush Goyal, was in Hapur, UP; The Union’s textile minister, Smriti Irani, was present in her Amethi constituency from where they attended the prime minister’s speech.
Here are the highlights of PM Modi’s direction:
* Currently, 18 thousand crore rupees have been deposited directly into the bank account of more than 9 crore of farming families in the country with a single click. Since this scheme began, more than 1 lakh 10 thousand crore rupees have come into the farmers’ account.
* Today I regret that more than 70 lakh farmers and my West Bengal brothers and sisters were unable to obtain this benefit. More than 23 lakh farmers in Bengal have submitted online applications to take advantage of this scheme. But the state government stopped the verification process a long time ago.
* The ideology of Mamata Banerjee has destroyed Bengal. Your actions against farmers have hurt me a lot. Why is the Opposition silent on this?
* The parties that do not speak in the interests of farmers in West Bengal, come here to Delhi and speak about farmers. These parties that today talk about APMC-mandis have forgotten that there are no APMC-mandis in Kerala. These people never protest in Kerala.
* Those who have ruled Kerala for years join Punjab farmers to take selfies, but do nothing for the mandi system in their own state.
These are the highlights of PM Modi’s interaction with farmers:
* PM Modi interacting with ginger growers in Arunachal Pradesh asked if doing business with private companies has affected their land ownership and expressed satisfaction with farmers benefiting from PM-Kisan quotas.
* PM interacted with farmers from Naupada, Odisha, who have benefited from the PM-KISAN scheme and the Kisan credit card, including the availability of low interest rate loans, and urged them to spread these schemes among small farmers.
* A farmer from Fatehabad, Haryana, Hari Singh Bishnoi, informed the prime minister that they had been growing rice and are now focusing on baghbani (gardening) of lemons and guavas that they can sell in their local mandis at a good price. PM Modi congratulated them for diversifying their products.
* Soy and tur farmers in Latur, Maharashtra, informed the Prime Minister that they suffered heavy losses last year, but due to crop insurance under Prime Minister Fasal Beema Yojana, they were able to survive.
* A farmer from Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, Manoj Patidar informed the prime minister that he received 10,000 rupees under PM Kisan scheme. Referring to the benefits he made under the new farm laws, Patidar said he was able to sell 85 quintals of soybeans to ITC.
* Rose and tomato growers from Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu, told the Prime Minister that the government’s plan promoting drip irrigation system helped them deal with water shortages in the region and increased their profits by Rs 40K to Rs 140,000.
* Farmers in Maharajganj, UP, told the prime minister that they used to grow wheat before, but now they are diversifying crops. Up to 100 small-scale farmers have formed the Agricultural Producers Organization (FPO) and have done business with an Ahmedabad company. The company takes the product from our door and there is no waste, plus our land is still ours, the farmers said.
Prime Minister Modi urged UP farmers to share this information with other farmers to counter political propaganda against the new farm laws.
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