PM-KISAN money credited to farmers in Andhra after 2 days

The third annual installment of the Prime Minister's Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) reached the farmers in Andhra Pradesh on Monday, two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the amount.

As the PM-KISAN is dovetailed to the State government's Rythu Bharosa scheme, fund disbursal to farmers happened only after Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy formally clicked on the computer transferring the amount into the farmers' bank accounts.

A sum of Rs 1,036 crore was thus credited into the accounts of over 50.58 lakh farmers today, a CMO press release later said.

Meanwhile, BJP State general secretary S Vishnuvardhan Reddy lashed out at the State government for withholding the PM-KISAN funds for two days after the Prime Minister released them.

"The Jagan government is only seeking to hoodwink farmers by putting out full-page advertisements in newspapers that it is a State scheme. But people are not blindfolded to believe such dubious claims," Vishnuvardhan said in a statement.

Incidentally, the Central government last month made it categorically clear that "PM-KISAN being a Central Sector Scheme can't be combined with any other scheme implemented by any State government." The Jagan government is now in a fix on the continuation of Rythu Bharosa as a standalone scheme from the next Kharif, once the Centre completely delinks it.