Fulfilling a key election promise, the second Narendra Modi government in its first Cabinet meeting approved inclusion of an additional two crore farmers under the PM-Kisan scheme, a move which will increase the annual cost of the scheme to `87,000 crore from `75,000 crore estimated earlier. The cash transfer scheme would now cover 14.5 crore farmers — almost all farmers in the country — against 12.5 crore earlier, new agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said.
The government also decided to launch two separate pension schemes for farmers and small traders. Under the `10,000-crore PM-Kisan scheme for farmers, the beneficiaries will receive `3,000 per month after they attain the age of 60 years.
Farmers have to pay a premium of `55/month (at the age of 18 years) in which the government will also contribute an equal amount, Tomar said adding, those between 18-40 years will be eligible to join. The dependent will receive `1,500/month pension in case a farmer dies, he added.
Under PM-Kisan, farmers with land holdings up to two hectares get `6,000/year in three equal instalments. While the scheme was rolled out in the interim Budget on February 1 (with retrospective effect from December 1, 2018), over 3 crore farmers have received the first instalment of `2,000, Tomar said.
Speaking about another electoral promise, which has been mentioned in the BJP manifesto, information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar said the cabinet approved a pension plan for small traders in which the target is to cover 5 crore traders in next 3 years. Traders will be allowed to join the plan through the common service centres, he said and added that the premium would vary as per their age on the date of joining the scheme.
In another decision, the Cabinet approved a vaccination plan for over 50 crore cattle, sheep, goat and pigs entailing a cost of `13,000 crore with a target to remove foot and mouth disease in next 5 years, Javadekar said.