With 85 percent of Meghalaya’s population involved in farming, Mawsynram MLA Himalaya Shangpliang today questioned why only 9,000 farmers were beneficiaries of the central government’s flagship Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme.
The figure of 8,967 beneficiaries of the Rs 2,000 direct benefit transfer announced by the central government yesterday was the lowest in the North East and second-lowest nationwide.
Speaking to Highland Post today, the opposition legislator said, “Who are these 8,967 beneficiaries and who made the list when Meghalaya comprises more than 85 percent farmers?”
According to PM-KISAN guidelines, state governments are required to send “correct and verified data of farmers”, which the state nodal officers authenticate and upload to the scheme’s database.
The grant was all the more necessary now because of the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Shangpliang said, and, furthermore, the state government should have made further efforts in assisting farmers especially when imposing the second lockdown.
He also accused the Agriculture Department of wasting the opportunity to utilise Rs 9 crore in unused accumulated funds for the benefit of farmers. The money was surrendered by the department in April when the first wave of Covid was beginning to make its appearance in the state, which had imposed tight restrictions to control its spread.
“You surrendered Rs 9 crore last year and this year you bring only Rs 1.80 crores to just under 9,000 farmers at this juncture and in this kind of situation. What are you trying to do, are you giving some peanuts to monkeys?” he asked of the government.
In his own constituency of Mawsynram more than 8,000 people are farmers and in the constituency of the Agriculture Minister, Banteidor Lyngdoh, fully 100 percent of the people depend on farming, Shangpliang added, wondering why so many people who are the backbone of the state should be left out of the PM-KISAN scheme.
