by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Exclusive report
PM-Kisan big headache for Modi
How to Link 12.56 crores Farmers with Banks before polls
Maharashtra's 1.18 crores farmers to get Cash dole
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, Feb 10
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has issued instructions to ministries of Rural Development, Agriculture, Finance and Information Technology to link 12.56 crores land-owning farmers with banks so that Rs 2000 could be transferred in February-early March. Once first installment is gone before notification, the government can also give second installment of Rs 2000 too.
The Ministries are working day-in and day-out with 36 states and union territories to collate farmers with their bank accounts.
Interestingly, 14 states including Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal are big beneficiaries as land records of farmers are fully computerized. Of the 12.56 crores farmers, 1.18 crores farmers in Maharashtra will benefit as their land record data is 98.83% complete and most are linked to banks too. (see Table)
Surprisingly, the Agriculture Ministry data shows that land records is very poor in Goa where only 53% are computerized and number of farmers is only 51000.
During the past 55 months, 34 crores new Jan Dhan accounts have been opened in the country. Of these, 15 crores are in the rural areas. Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told Lokmat that of the 12 crores MANREGA beneficiaries, the data of 8 crores beneficiaries is computerized. “We are now trying to find out land owners and link them with bank accounts.”
Radha Mohan Singh, Union Agriculture Minister, also told Lokmat that a data base of 8.59 crores exist in his ministry. Of the 2.22 crores are beneficiaries of 15 schemes and 2.07 crores are linked with bank accounts. There are 7 crores farmers who have Kisan Credit Cards (KCC).
Now PM Modi wants states and ministries to complete the task of linking 12.56 crores land oning farmers with their bank accounts by February 25 so that money could be transferred directly in their accounts.
Modi has covered 67% of rural population of land owning community by his PM-Kisan scheme. The foot-print of this cash transfer will spread over 342 rural Lok Sabha constituencies.
Ends
| Status of computerisation of land records | ||
| State | Number | % complete |
| Odisha | 4524000 | 100.00 |
| Karnataka | 6977000 | 99.99 |
| Telangana | 5249000 | 99.44 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 7560000 | 99.21 |
| Jharkhand | 2304000 | 99.12 |
| Maharashtra | 11871000 | 98.83 |
| West Bengal | 6969000 | 98.10 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 7550000 | 97.16 |
| Rajasthan | 4748000 | 96.86 |
| Gujarat | 3634000 | 96.41 |
| Punjab | 361000 | 93.63 |
| Uttrakhand | 808000 | 93.58 |
| Sikkim | 57000 | 93.29 |
| Haryana | 1117000 | 92.93 |
