The number of farmers who received the latest instalment of Rs 2,000 on February 27 under the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme has come down to about 8.54 crore.

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This compares to 8.99 crore farmers who got the instalment on October 17, 2022 for the August-November period, and record 11.27 crore farmers who got the instalment on May 31, 22 for the April-July period of 2022-23.

The drop in numbers comes alongside the government insistence on proper records to ensure there are no leakages or ineligible beneficiaries.

A total of 8,53,80,362 farmers got the latest instalment on February 27, down by almost 25 percent from the number of beneficiaries who got the April-July period instalment last year, shows the dashboard of the PM-Kisan portal.

According to the government’s statement, on May 31 last year, over Rs 21,000 crore was transferred to farmers as part of the 11th PM-Kisan instalment. This year, Rs 16,800 crore was transferred to farmers as part of the 13th PM-Kisan instalment.​

The Centre pays three instalments of Rs 2,000 each to farmers across the country in each financial year under the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme.

Here’s a look at likely reasons why fewer farmers received the instalment

Though the government has not yet mentioned any reasons, News18 has learnt that this could be due to unupdated land and beneficiary records of farmers in central databases, which has been made mandatory by the Centre to ensure transparency and prevent frauds. All states have been repeatedly sensitised about this, it is learnt.

According to the News18 report, the central government has said only those farmers, whose records fulfill four specific conditions, will get the instalments of PM-Kisan Nidhi.

Following are the conditions

– Land record of the farmer must be marked to determine that the farmer actually owns the said land

– The farmer’s e-KYC must stand completed on the PM-Kisan portal

– The farmer’s bank account must be seeded with Aadhaar

– The account must also be linked to the National Payments Corporation of India.

The state governments’ revenue and administration officials, banks and the farmers need to work together to ensure the records are duly updated.

Also Read | Kisan Credit Card scheme: Who's eligible, how to apply, interest rate, limit and other details

News18 had earlier reported that the Uttar Pradesh government had ordered a special campaign in every village from January 16 to January 30 to ensure all eligible farmers get the PM-Kisan instalments.

As of May 31 last year, UP had the most number of farmers — 2.41 crore — but the number dropped drastically to just 1.79 crore farmers last October. It is not yet known how many farmers in UP got the latest instalment.

Also Read: Here's how to update e-KYC to get benefits under PM Kisan scheme