New Delhi: A proper to facts (RTI) question filed by The Wire has discovered that crores of rupees credited to farmers’ debts under the Modi authorities’ bold PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme were reversed within hours.
The BJP has been championing the PM-Kisan Yojana as a chief accomplishment in its rallies for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Launched on February 24, PM Modi defined the scheme as a substantial step closer to improving tfarmers’circumstance However, files accessed employing The Wire screen that the deposits of Rs 2,000—given to many farmers as the first installment—were reversed within a few hours or a few days in a few cases. The scheme affords Rs 6,000 yearly, in 3 installments of Rs 2,000, to farmers who own land totaling hectares or less. In reaction to the RTI query, the nineteen national banks within the State Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, UCO Bank, Syndicate Bank, and Canara Bank admitted that for some of the beneficiaries, the cash credited to the farmers’ debts under the PM-Kisan Yojana has been debited.
Banks claim a lack of awareness of the debited price range.
The State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest financial institution, said that 27,307 such bills existed until March 8, 2019, and a total of Rs 546 crore had been deposited, after which it was reversed. The SBI additionally said it had credited Rs 854.85 crore in approximately f4274,000 money owed until March 8, 2019, under the PM-Kisan scheme.
Similarly, the Bank of Maharashtra showed that some of the cash deposited within the farmers’ accounts under the scheme had been deducted. The bank said that it had deposited around Rs 37.70 crore in 1,88,000 bills, of which Rs 61.2 lakh has been reversed.
According to this response, the money deposited beneath the PM’s farmer scheme has been debited through the Bank of Maharashtra from almost 3,060 farmers’ owed money.
Meanwhile, in response to the RTI question, the UCO Bank said that on February 24, Rs 58.38 lakh was debited from 2,919 accounts. The assistant trendy manager of the financial institution, A.K. Barua, said that the price was reversed due to incorrect beneficiary account numbers or other issues regarding Aadhaar playing cards.
However, upon further inquiries with The Wire’s aid about whether or not the account numbebeneficiaries’ account numbers were and payments processed again, the financial institution no longer replied. According to data, the UCO financial institution had deposited Rs 30.28 crore in 1,51,000 money owed under the PM-Kisan scheme until February 24.
Another countrywide financial institution, Syndicate Bank, answered the RTI query by saying that since it had to accumulate the information from different branches throughout the country, it couldn’t receive it under Section 7 (9).
In reaction to the RTI, Andhra Bank claimed it had deposited around Rs hundred and seventy crores in nearly 8,54,000 accounts. Of this, Rs 90,50,02,178 had been “withdrawn.” When The Wire sought rationalization, the bank’s preferred manager, M. Satyanarayana Reddy, claimed that the debited amount – more than Rs 90 crore – was withdrawn through farmers.
However, he changed into not explaining how the bank decided whether or not the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 from an account was crafted from the amount deposited underneath the PM-Kisan scheme instead of a normal withdrawal by the account holder from their financial savings.
Another nationalized bank, Canara Bank, has stated that numerous instances have surfaced where the money deposited underneath the PM-Kisan scheme becomes debited. However, the bank did not offer information about the full number of such cases.