New Delhi: Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has written to Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar requesting the later to ensure disbursement of PM-KISAN benefits to all eligible farmers of Odisha.
In the letter, Pradhan urged Tomar to convene a meeting between Odisha government and officials of the Agriculture ministry for resolving payment related issues.
“I also request your personal intervention in facilitating additional bulk window clearances to the state government to enable them to expeditiously rectify the details of all beneficiaries whose records were put in ‘stop payment’ mode,” Pradhan said in the letter.
Tomar, through social media, informed that he has taken cognisance of the matter and instructed officials to resolve the issue at the earliest so that all eligible farmers of Odisha are benefitted with PM-KISAN.
Earlier, Pradhan had written to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik seeking resolution of administrative and non-compliance issues for ensuring payment of PM-KISAN instalments to the eligible farmers.
In response to his letter, he said, the state Agriculture minister had written to him stating that total disbursement of PM-KISAN instalments to many eligible farmers in Odisha has come down due to factors like delays in lot opening, transaction failures, non-integration of banks with PFMS, rejection of beneficiaries with discrepancies in Aadhaar card name and registered farmer name, changes in LGD codes, low level of automation in some banks and non-receipt of payment success information from banks, amongst others.
“I understand that PM-KISAN beneficiary lots are opened to the states before the disbursal of each instalment for making minor modifications. However, I also learnt that the Odisha government had issued ‘stop payment’ instructions with respect to records of 14.5 lakh farmers for ‘physical re-verification’, an unusually large number of such cases among all Indian states,” Pradhan said.
He added that this effectively reduced the number of PM-KISAN beneficiaries in the state to only 23 lakh.
