Uttar Pradesh leads in taking benefit of the government's ambitious Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme, according to agriculture ministry data accessed by CNBC-TV18.

Out of the 2.18 crore small and marginal farmers who have received payments under PM-KISAN as on March 7, a massive 74.71 lakh farmers are in Uttar Pradesh.

While Andhra Pradesh has emerged as the second lead state with 32 lakh farmers receiving PM-KISAN funds, followed by Gujarat, with 25.28 lakh farmers from this state receiving PM-KISAN payment as on March 7.

According to agriculture ministry data, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Haryana are also among the lead states, with varying numbers of 8-15 lakh farmers in each of these states, getting the PM-KISAN funds.

Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Uttarakhand and Punjab are the states where under 2-4 lakh farmers, in each of these states, have received PM-KISAN payment.

States like Bihar and Chhattisgarh are seen to have been lagging, with 72,000 farmers getting PM-KISAN in Bihar and 36,000 in Chattisgarh so far.

Agriculture ministry data also goes on to show not a single farmer in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal has received PM-KISAN funds. While three farmers in Karnataka have received the money as of March 7.

This, even as union finance minister Arun Jaitley’s tweet said Karnataka has sent names of 60,023 farmers, Madhya Pradesh of 298 farmers and West Bengal has not sent a single name till date.

Jaitley said, "The spread of beneficiaries is very uneven across states. Why are some Congress-ruled states and West Bengal not cooperating with PM-KISAN, why are they letting down their farmers?”

Agriculture ministry officials said all states are on board for PM-KISAN but farmer database of many states is either slow or not updated. Hence, even when names are sent to the centre, it’s not necessary that monies will be actually transferred against all the names sent by individual states.