To provide some relief to the farmers affected because of the ongoing nationwide lockdown, the Central Government announced that it will transfer the first installment of Rs 2,000 to each of the 8.69 crore farmers under the PM KISAN scheme within the first week of April.

The center made this announcement regarding the relief measures within 36 hours of the nationwide lockdown. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a statement, "The Farmers receive Rs 6,000 annually from the PM KISAN scheme. Now, We will give the first installment of this amount as a front-loaded matter to make sure that they are getting Rs. 2,000 at the beginning of the year".

She further added This will be an immediate benefit to 8.69 crore farmers who feed more than 1.3 billion of the population.

A total amount of 17 thousand and 793 crore rupees have been released to about 8.69 crore farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM KISAN) Scheme till now while the lockdown period is still not over. The Ministry of Agriculture said in a statement that, in order to provide food security during the current lockdown situation due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Government has made a decision to distribute pulses to all the households that come under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PM-GKY).

So far, More than 1.07 lakh Metric Tonnes pulses have been issued to all the States and Union Territories. The distribution of pulses under the PMGKY has been done to benefit over 19.50 crore households spread across the 36 States and Union territories of India.

Under the PM Kisan Yojana, income support of Rs 6000 is provided annually to all the eligible farmers and their families all over the country in three equal installments of Rs 2,000 after every four months. Rs 2,000 is transferred to the bank accounts of the farmers or their families directly. The PM Kisan scheme had come into effect starting from 1st December 2018.

The eligibility criteria to apply for the PM KISAN scheme is simple. Farmers eligible for the PM Kisan scheme include: 

1. Landholding farmers’ families with cultivable landholding in their names
2. Farmers living in both urban and rural areas
3. Small and marginal farmers families 
   
   

Farmers who are not eligible for the PM Kisan scheme include:

1. Institutional landholders
2. Present or retired officers and employees of the state or the central government and the PSUs and government autonomous bodies.
3. Beneficiaries with a higher economic status
4. Farmers who pay the income tax
5. Farmer families holding a constitutional post
6. With Professions such as doctors, engineers, and lawyers
7. Retired pensioners with a monthly pension of more than Rs 10,000

Farmers can register themselves for the scheme on the official website of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana - pmkisan.gov.in. Then the website has a section named the 'farmers' corner' where the farmers can register themselves, edit their name in the PM-Kisan database and know about the status of their payments.

Picture Source: Business Today, The Wire

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