New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday exempted Meghalaya, Assam and the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh from linking bank accounts of citizens with Aadhaar data to avail financial benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme by one more year.
The PM-KISAN scheme was launched by the Prime Minister last year to provide income support to all landholder farmer families across the country with cultivable land, subject to certain exclusions.
Under the PM-KISAN Scheme, an amount of Rs 6000 per year is released in three installments of Rs 2000 each directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.
From December 2019, release of benefits under this scheme was done only through Aadhaar seeded data of beneficiaries uploaded by the state and UTs on the PM-KISAN portal. However, Meghalaya, Assam and the UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh were given exemption till March 31, 2020, as Aadhaar penetration in these states/ UTs has been miniscule.
The total number of farmers in Meghalaya who have been paid at least one installment of the benefits as on April 8, 2020 stands at 98,915.
