Direct Benefit Transfer

Read the following passage and answer the questions 16 to 20. Hurdles in PM-Kisan Scheme. The Modi government's cash-for-farmers programme has been able to benefit only half of the 140 million farmers targeted in 2019-20 due to implementation hurdles, according to figures presented in Parliament. The next disbursal, now due, is likely to leave out those who have not been able to link their bank accounts with Aadhaar, the universal 12-digit biometric identity number. Under PM-KISAN, the government provides income support of Rs. 6,000 a year to farmers with a valid enrolment, paid in three equal cash transfers of Rs. 2,000 - one every four months. It was launched on 24 February 2019, when the first instalment was paid. At the current rate of expansion, the government is unlikely to spend the entire Rs. 75,000 crore budgeted for 2019-20. As on October 21, 2019, the government has spent Rs. 32,577 crore, or 43% of this. Aadhaar-based enrolment and cash transfers, slow internet connections in many rural centres and messy land records have slowed the programme, the farm ministry told a parliamentary panel this month. Cash transfers under the programme take place every four months: December to March, April to July and August to November. In the first instalment period (December 2018 to March 2019), nearly 70.2 million farmers received a total of Rs. 14,055 crore. In the second tranche (April to July 2019), only 59.2 million were paid a total amount of Rs. 11,845 crore. The third instalment saw 33.3 million farmers benefiting, with a payout of Rs. 6,677 crore. There's a reason those numbers look out of place. After all, if 70.2 million farmers received the first instalment, why did only 59.2 receive a second instalment and only 33.3 million a third? The agriculture ministry counts the first tranche paid to a farmer, even if it was paid for the second period due to late enrolment, as the 'first instalment paid'. This means even if a farmer enrolled in the second period (April to July 2019) and got his instalment for this period as his first ever cash transfer, he will be counted among those receiving the first instalment (December 2018 to March 2019). This inflates the total number of farmers, as shown above. In all, of the targeted 140 million farmers, nearly 71 million farmers have so far received the payouts, as the ministry noted before the parliamentary panel. "I would like to make it clear that the total number of farmers who have got the benefit is right now 7,17,42,959", a ministry official said in the report to Parliament. That leaves another 69 million to be targeted by March. Based on these, 33.3 million farmers benefited from the scheme between December 2018 and March 2019 (they have received three instalments), with an additional 25.9 million benefited from it between April and July (they have received two), and an additional 11 between August and November (they have received only one). According to the scheme's design, farmers registered for the scheme in the first stage would have received all three instalments released so far since the start of the scheme. Farmers who registered during the second period would not have received the first instalment but would have received the next two, because the benefits are not retrospective.