Additionally, the lenders have been asked to freeze such accounts and send new reminders, if necessary, to the ineligible farmers...

Digital Desk: Over 81,000 farmers in Bihar have been found ineligible for the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme, and the government has asked state-owned banks to speed up the process of collecting refunds from them. He claimed that due to paying income tax and other factors, it was determined that these farmers were ineligible for the central government programmes.

"After careful examination, a total of 81,595 farmers (45,879 income tax payers since 2020 and 35,716 for other reasons) have been found as ineligible recipients in Bihar. The state's agriculture department has urged all the concerned banks to speed up the process of collecting the refund payment worth around Rs 81.6 crore from the farmers," Alok Ranjan Ghosh, director of agriculture informed.

Senior officials were asked to start the collection process top priority at a recent State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) meeting, he claimed.

Additionally, the lenders have been asked to freeze such accounts and send new reminders, if necessary, to the ineligible farmers. According to Ghosh, several banks have already recouped over Rs 10.3 crore from these farmers as refund money.

The PM-Kisan plan came into effect in December 2018. All farmer families that own land receive financial support under the project in the form of three equal payments totaling Rs 6,000 per year. The money is delivered straight to the beneficiaries' bank accounts after the state governments identify the farming families that qualify for assistance under the program's rules.