Mamata Banerjee on Monday said she had written a letter to Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar, informing him that the state government would verify 21.79 lakh farmers’ applications for the Centre’s PM-Kisan scheme.
The move, bureaucrats said, is a significant development as this gives a hint that the state is ready to implement the scheme, which was so far being rejected since it was launched in December, 2018. The scheme ensures a financial support of Rs 6,000 annually for farmers across the country.
“The Union agriculture minister had written a letter on November 6 last year asking us to verify the applications of 21.79 lakh farmers, who had applied for the scheme through the Centre’s portal. I have urged him to send the list of farmers and we will verify the applicants,” the chief minister said at Nabanna on Monday.
Mamata made it clear that her government did not want the farmers to be deprived of any benefits offered by the Centre. She insisted that her objection was to the manner in which the Centre wanted to implement the scheme.
“I had called up the Union agriculture minister and urged him to transfer money to the state’s treasury. We will transfer the money to the farmers immediately. But he said the Centre wanted to send benefits directly to the farmers. This shows the Centre wants to bypass the state,” said the chief minister.
“As we don’t want to deprive any of the farmers of any benefit, we have asked the Centre to send the list so that we can verify them,” the chief minister added.
Bengal was opposing the scheme citing it did not give benefit to all the farmers and the state-sponsored scheme — Krishak Bandu — was far more inclusive as it was offering Rs 5,000 per acre annually, besides a sum of Rs 2 lakh in case of a farmer’s death.
“Our scheme is for 72 lakh farmers in the state, but the Centre’s scheme would give benefit to a maximum of 21 lakh to 22 lakh farmers,” the chief minister said.
So far, a total of 47 lakh farmers have registered for the state’s scheme and another 2 lakh farmers have applied through the Duare Sarkar camps.
Trinamul insiders said the move by the chief minister was a smart one as it would counter the BJP’s campaign that the state government had deprived the farmers of the state of financial assistance under the central scheme by not implementing it.
“Now the BJP would not be able to raise the issue to attack the chief minister. But on the other hand, the chief minister would be able to catch the BJP on the wrong foot by saying only one third of the state’s farmers are eligible for the scheme,” said a Trinamul MLA.
Sources in Nabanna said that according to the guideline of Krishak Bandu, the farmers could avail themselves of both the schemes as the state’s scheme didn’t prevent anybody from getting the benefits even if a farmer was getting assistance under a similar scheme from any other agency.
House motion
Mamata said her government would get a resolution passed in the Assembly against the three new farm laws enacted by the Centre.
“We will hold an Assembly session of two to three days where the resolution will be passed. I hope that all parties, except the BJP, would support the move,” said the chief minister.
Recently, the Left and the Congress had written to the chief minister urging her to convene an Assembly session to discuss the contentious farm laws.
Many states have already got similar motions passed in their respective Assembles against the agriculture laws.
