About :

• Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) is a Central Sector Scheme with 100% funding from the Government of India.
• It is being implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
• It provides income support to all landholding farmers’ families in the country to supplement their financial needs for procuring various inputs related to agriculture and allied activities as well as domestic needs
• The Centre transfers an amount of Rs 6,000 per year, in three equal instalments, directly into the bank accounts of the all landholding farmers irrespective of the size of their land holdings.

Exclusion:

• Institutional land holders,
• Farmer families holding constitutional posts,
• Serving or retired officers and employees of state/central government as well as PSUs and government autonomous bodies.
• Professionals like doctors, engineers and lawyers as well as retired pensioners with a monthly pension of over Rs 10,000 and those who paid income tax in the last assessment year.

Identification of beneficiaries : 

The responsibility of identifying the eligible beneficiary farmers and uploading their data on PM-KISAN portal lies entirely with the state governments.

Why in News?

A combination of factors, such as relaxation of norms in enumeration of farmers, delegation of the power of authentication, emergence of a syndicate and discrepancies in data concerning land holdings, have caused the ₹110 crore scam in the PM Kisan in Tamil Nadu.

News in Detail:

• The Central government, a year ago, introduced online provision for self-registration of prospective beneficiaries, after furnishing the required details.
• This arrangement allowed a section of field officials at offices of Assistant Directors of Agriculture to collude with private computer centres.
• Some of the officers were not tech-savvy,and that they had to be reliant on data entry operators for authentication. .
• The COVID-19 pandemic was used by the alleged culprits, as the field-level officers were occupied with immediate requirements of farmers and many could not visit their offices.
• There are reports of multiple beneficiaries in families. 
• While a family may have four individuals, each owning farm lands, there can be only one beneficiary in the family. 
• Thus the State government has sought the Centre’s permission to make the submission of ration card details mandatory so that the problem of duplication can be eliminated.

References:

1. https://pmkisan.gov.in/Documents/RevisedFAQ.pdf
2. https://vikaspedia.in/agriculture/policies-and-schemes/crops-related/pradhan-mantri-kisan-samman-nidhi
3. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/pm-kisan-scheme-combination-of-factors-led-to-scam-in-tamil-nadu/article32576501.ece