The number of beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana has fallen 22 per cent from 10.45 crore families last year to 8.12 crore now, causing some MPs to wonder whether eligible farmers were being excluded.

The Union government started the scheme, popularly called PM-Kisan, ahead of the 2019 general election. Under this, every small and marginal farmer family — that is, those holding less than 5 acres of land — in the country is to receive Rs 2,000 once every four months.

Congress MP Rajani Ashokrao Patil claimed in the Rajya Sabha on Friday that there had been a 67 per cent reduction in the number of beneficiaries of the scheme between 2019 and 2023. She asked the government to explain the reason.

The figure of 67 per cent does not match government data. On December 16, 2022, the government furnished data in the Rajya Sabha showing a steady increase in the number of beneficiaries every four-month period, from 3.16 crore in the period from December 2018 to March 2019 to 10.45 crore in the four-month period ending in July 2022.

This dropped to 8.42 crore in the four-month period ending in November 2022.

The government’s spending on the scheme plummeted from Rs 22,552 crore in the four-month period ending in July 2022 to Rs 17,444 crore in the following four-month period. According to the agriculture census of 2015-16, there are nearly 14.5 crore farmer families in the country.

Kailash Choudhary, Union minister of state for agriculture and farmers’ welfare, told the Rajya Sabha on Friday that 8.12 crore farmer families were currently receiving the benefit. At one point the number had crossed 11 crore, he said, without mentioning the period.

“The initial beneficiary data had come from the state governments. Many undeserving farmers also got the benefit,” Choudhary said.

“Later we linked the beneficiaries to Aadhaar and e-KYC (Know Your Customer bank accounts). There are 8.12 crore beneficiaries now. We are asking states to send the list of deserving farmers (to see) if anyone (has been) left out.”

Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar asked Patil and the minister to meet and discuss the data. Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge demanded that the House be informed of the details of the discussion.

Members Vaiko (MDMK) and M. Shanmugam (DMK) asked whether the government would bring landless farmers (agricultural workers) under the scheme. In the written reply, the minister said it wouldn’t.

Indian Lok Dal member Jayant Choudhary asked whether the government planned to increase the amount of Rs 6,000 a year, which had not been revised since the start of the scheme. The government did not clarify the matter.

However, when three members had asked the same question in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar had replied: “There is no such proposal under consideration.”

Akshaya Mohanty, who runs a Common Service Centre at Kapileswarpur village in Puri district of Odisha, said the government had in 2022 made it mandatory for farmer families to register electronically for the benefits to continue.

“For registration, the farmers had to provide their Aadhaar number, land records and KYC-compliant bank account details. Those who did not are not receiving the benefit,” he said.

Congress Rajya Sabha member L. Hanumanthaiah told this newspaper that many eligible farmers may have been left out for the lack of documentation.

“The government should facilitate the people fulfil these formalities (of registration),” he said.