(a) whether the Government has asked 42 lakh farmers in the country who have received payouts from Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme to return Rs. 3,000 crore to the Central Government;
(b) if so, the reasons behind this and the process designated for recovering the money from ineligible beneficiaries; and
(c) the action proposed by the Government if the beneficiaries are unable to return the money due to conditions caused by the pandemic?
MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
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(a) to (c): The selection/identification of beneficiaries is the responsibility of the State/UT Government and, as and when the correct/verified data of intended beneficiaries are uploaded on the PM-KISAN portal by respective State/UT Government, the financial benefits are transferred directly into the bank account of beneficiaries. Therefore, the responsibility to recover the funds transferred to the accounts of ineligible beneficiaries lies with the respective State/UT Government.
Contd…..2/-
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As the structure of PM-KISAN Scheme inherently comprises of mechanism for exclusion of errors on the basis of continuous verification and validation of data of beneficiaries by various authorities including Aadhaar/PFMS/Income Tax database, it has come to notice of this Department that some ineligible beneficiaries including income tax payees have received the benefit of the Scheme. After identification of such ineligible beneficiaries, the respective State/UT Government starts the process of recovering the funds transferred to such ineligible beneficiaries as per the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issues to States/UTs for recovering money from ineligible beneficiaries. Further, the following special measures have been taken by the Government to ensure that the scheme is properly implemented in order to benefit genuine farmers:
(i) Standard Operational Guidelines for identification of Income Tax Payees have been prepared and circulated to the States.
(ii) Caution Advisory to the States to adopt measures during the registration and verification of farmers under the PM-KISAN scheme.
(iii) Standard Operational Guidelines for Physical Verification of PM-KISAN beneficiaries have been circulated to the State Governments.
(iv) States/UTs have been instructed to carry out Social audit of every Gram Panchayat.
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