(ET)
The Uttar Pradesh government plans to cover 29 million farmers under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi minimum income support scheme by the end of September. The BJP-ruled state has revised its target after covering almost all of the 23.22 million farmers under the 6,000-a-year scheme as per the count of farmers in the 2011 Census.
In a letter sent to all district magistrates in the state on Monday, the UP government said records of 23.18 million farmers in the state had beenfed into an online portal by district authorities for the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme. The number represents more than 99 per cent of the initial target of 23.22 million farmers as per the census. However, given that more farmers exist in the country’s most populous state at present, many districts achieved more than 100 per cent of their target as per the census, including 120-130 per cent in districts such as Hathras, Etawah, Saharanpur and Agra, hence necessitating a exercise” to ascertain the actual number of farmers in the state.