Modi launches PM-Kisan scheme, transfers Rs 2,021 cr to over 10 mn farmers

Business Standard Modi launches PM-Kisan scheme, transfers Rs 2,021 cr to over 10 mn farmers

The yojana is estimated to cost the exchequer Rs 75,000 crore annually and benefit more than 120 million small and marginal farmers in India

Economy & Policy: Gautam Pawar, a farmer with a wiry build, hailing from Maharashtra, was mobbed by news channels, jostling for his “bite” after he had shared the stage with PM Narendra Modi at the Fertiliser Factory Ground here. The occasion was the launch of arguably the world’s largest farm sector scheme, titled the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PM-Kisan). Modi handed over Kisan Credit Cards to a few farmers, including Pawar. The yojana is estimated to cost the exchequer Rs 75,000 crore annually.

It will benefit more than 120 million small and marginal farmers in India, including 21.4 million in Uttar Pradesh (UP), the biggest beneficiary among the states of the country.

With the farmer outreach through the launch of the scheme, the BJP laid down its template for the Lok Sabha polls, with the development agenda of 2014 having been replaced with the farm narrative. This comes at a time when the Congress has been insisting on farm loan waiver, especially after the party tasted success in the recent Assembly polls in the Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.

Modi in his speech was high on symbolism. He wore a light green kurta along with a saffron-hued waistcoat, subtly signifying the balance between the BJP’s twin agendas of agriculture and Hindutva.

The high turnout on the concluding day of the BJP Kisan Morcha’s two-day national convention was aimed at blunting the Opposition tirade on the purported farm distress under the Modi dispensation.

Modi spiced his modulated speech with descriptions of farm-related achievements of his government. “You know when the PM-Kisan scheme was announced in Parliament, the faces of Opposition leaders became grim,” he said, alleging Opposition leaders had launched a misinformation campaign or just spreading lies...Read More