Govt relaxes Aadhaar seeding requirement for PM-Kisan scheme

The scheme provides income support of Rs6,000 per year to landholding families, subject to certain exclusions. The amount is released in three 4-monthly instalments of Rs2,000 each directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries through DBT mode.

Under this scheme, after 1 August 2019, release of third Instalment onwards to those beneficiaries who got first instalment during December 2018-March 2019 and second instalment during April-July 2019 were to be made only on the basis of Aadhaar seeded database. 

Similarly, after 1 August 2019, release of second instalment onwards to those who got first instalment during April-July 2019 was to be made only on the basis of Aadhaar seeded database. 

Again, after 1 August 2019, release of first instalment onwards to the rest of the beneficiaries was to be made only on the basis of Aadhaar seeded database. 

Farmers in the states of Assam, Meghalaya and J&K, where there has not been enough Aadhaar penetration, have been exempted from this requirement till 31 March 2020.

However, it has not been possible to get 100 per cent Aadhaar seeding for release of funds as per the prescribed time schedule before release of instalments after 1 August 2019. Since the farmers are still gearing up for Rabi season, they are in dire need of money to take care of various farming activities like procurement of seeds, preparation of soil and other associated activities like irrigation, maintenance and mobilisation of machinery and tools.

Also, the just started festive season will put further stress on the financial condition of the poor farmers' households in the country. Non-seeding of beneficiaries' details with Aadhaar number will delay the release of further instalments and will cause discontentment among the farmers. Therefore, the mandatory requirement of Aadhaar seeding for release of benefits after 1 August 2019 has been relaxed till 30 November 2019. This will enable immediate release of benefits to a large number of farmers who are not able to avail the same due this requirement. 

This mandatory requirement will remain applicable for release of benefits from 1 December 2019 onwards. The government said it would take adequate measures to validate the data before payment is made.

Under the central sector scheme, namely, the Pradhan Mantri KisanSamman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) a total of more than Rs27,000 crore has already been released through the first instalment to 6,76,76,073 beneficiaries, second instalment to 5,14,27,195 beneficiaries and third instalment to 1,74,20,230 beneficiaries.