Implementing PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi would be Herculean Task

The interim finance minister in his budget speech on February 1, 2019, said 120 million farmers with less than five acres would get Rs.6000/ each annually under the Scheme, PM Kisan Samman Nidhi. It is stated that amount would be paid in three installments and the interesting part is that it would be applicable retrospectively from December 2018, which means Rs.2000/- would be paid into the bank accounts of the farmers in next couple of months at least before the date of the announcement of parliament election. However, the Government will face many challenges in implementing this scheme since most of the States do not have updated revenue records or title/ownership records. That is identifying the beneficiaries for PM Kisan Samman Nidhi would be a herculean task for the Government.

Even in states like Tamil Nadu, all agriculture landholders are not having Patta or Revenue Records in their name. Lakhs of landholders have Patta in their family members like Grand Father/Father/Mother/Brother’s name who may have died many years ago. Besides this, there is another category of landholders who in spite of having purchased the land as per law, do not have Patta in their name.  The reason being the act of demanding bribe for the transfer of patta. Because of this sole reason, many poor farmers lost hope and as a result in spite of lawful owners of the land, they do not have Patta or Revenue records for the said land in their name.

Now after Interim Budget 2019-20 announcement, thousands of landholder might come forward to offer bribe to revenue officials for transfer of Patta or mutation of land in revenue records since no transfer happens without paying bribe most of the time. There are also chances that corrupt officials may hike the bribe amount by citing the number of applications they will be receiving. The one who pays higher bribe amount may get Patta transferred and others may get left out. This is the reality at even the so-called prosperous state Tamil Nadu. Controlling this menace and updating the revenue records would be very challenging for the Government. After all the Revenue officials are having years of experience in the art of seeking bribe from the citizen.

State Government should arrange special camps and appoint special officers to monitor activities of revenue department officials who look after the Patta Transfer tasks so those lawful landowners (farmers) are identified. After all, if the State Government fails in its duty, then the Central (BJP) Government will always have an excuse to blame the State Government for failing to implement the Central Government Scheme in spite of the allocation of funds. I hope State Governments will act sincerely.  May every citizen of this country get Patta without paying a bribe.

Jai Hind!