From Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi: The Centre has formed a three-member ministerial panel to decide on the criteria for identifying beneficiaries from the Northeastern states for PM-KISAN, the cash-transfer scheme for small and marginal farmers.
As in some parts of the region, land assets are typically community-held, rather than individually owned, making the process of identifying small cultivators rather complex and different from the rest of the country.
The panel will look into this vital issue and come out with a proposal, official sources said.
Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and DoNER Minister Jitendra Singh are members of the panel.
PM-KISAN, which offers direct income support of Rs 6,000 a year, is meant for farmers counted as small and marginal farmers, whose individually owned farm size is limited to two hectares only.
To be included in the scheme, individual ownership (of only up to 2 hectares) or at least some verifiable authentication of the share of an individual in village farm land is required. In tribal- dominated hill districts of Northeastern states, such as Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, the land-tenure system is quite different and much of the cultivated land in these states are held by village councils under customary laws.
“The government has accepted a proposal from Manipur government to decide the criteria for inclusion in the PM-KISAN scheme after due consideration by the ministerial panel,” the sources said. In Manipur, although land ownership rights are ultimately community held, farmers are given their individual shares according to customary laws and inter-generational transfers.
The Manipur government has proposed that such shares would be authenticated and validated by the Revenue department based on certificates issued by village chiefs, the sources said.
The Manipur model is likely to be adopted as a template for the rest of the Northeastern states with a similar land tenure system.
Parts of Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Meghalaya as well as the hill districts of Assam, Tripura and Manipur account for a significant part of the agricultural economy of the region. In these areas, which follow a “commons” model, individuals often don’t have transferable property rights on land.
The government had to take a separate view since right to land is traditionally distributed in step with customary norms by the village council or the village chief in many parts of the North East.
Community ownership of land is predominant in areas of shifting cultivation and individual ownership of land is usually transferable within the tribal community.
PM-Kisan Scheme is an initiative by government in which 120 million small and marginal Indian farmers who have less than 2 hectares of landholding who will get up to Rs 6,000 per year as minimum income support.
The scheme is being implemented from December 2018. Six thousand rupees per year will be paid to each eligible farmer in three installments and will be deposited directly to their bank accounts.