New Delhi: A proper to facts (RTI) question filed by way of The Wire has discovered that crores of rupees credited into farmers’ debts under the Modi authorities’ bold PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme were reversed inside some 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 lots of farmers in the form of the first installment – were reversed inside 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 inside us of 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 within the farmers’ debts below the PM-Kisan Yojana has in view that been debited.
Banks claim a lack of awareness approximately debited price range.
The State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest financial institution, said that there were 27,307 such bills until March eight, 2019, and a complete of Rs five.46 crore had been deposited after which reversed. The SBI additionally said that it had credited Rs 854.85 crore in approximately forty-two,74,000 money owed until March 8, 2019, underneath the PM-Kisan scheme.
Similarly, the Bank of Maharashtra showed that a number of the cash deposited within the farmers’ accounts under the scheme has been deducted. The bank said that it had deposited around Rs 37.70 crore in 1,88,000 bills, to this point 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 three,060 farmers’ money owed.
Meanwhile, in response to the RTI question, the UCO Bank aid that by using February 24, Rs 58.38 lakh become debited from 2,919 accounts. The assistant trendy manager of the financial institution, A.K. Barua, said that the price becomes reversed due to incorrect account numbers of the beneficiaries or different issues regarding Aadhaar playing cards.
However, upon further inquiries with The Wire’s aid about whether or not the account number of the beneficiaries was later corrected and payments processed again, the financial institution did no longer reply. 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 to say that since it had to accumulate the information from different branches throughout the country, the information can’t receive underneath Section 7 (9).
In reaction to the RTI, Andhra Bank claimed that it had deposited around Rs a 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 – which is more than Rs 90 crore – were 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 his or her personal financial savings.
Another nationalized bank, Canara Bank, has stated that numerous such instances have surfaced where the money deposited underneath the PM-Kisan scheme becomes debited. However, the bank did not offer information approximately the full quantity of such cases.