The Krishak Bandhu is one of the important public welfare schemes of the state. Welfare schemes for farmers are also under the central government, but in that case many farmers cannot avail the benefits of the central scheme due to several pre-conditions like income limit. Due to the absence of any pre-conditions, more than 1 crore farmers and sharecroppers have taken the benefits of the West Bengal Krishak Bandhu scheme.
When the West Bengal government launched the scheme in January 2019, farmers were given a maximum grant of ₹6,000/- per year and subsequently the Krishak bandhu (New) scheme was introduced in 2021, increasing the maximum assistance to ₹10,000/- per annum. – is done. A total of ₹18,234 crore has been disbursed since the inception of this scheme.
You know that in this case, the farmers whose land size is 1 acre or more, get maximum ₹10,000/- per year, and those whose land size is less than 1 acre get financial assistance of ₹4,000/- per year. Also, in case of untimely death of a farmer between 18 and 60 years of age under this scheme, the family is given a compensation of Rs.2 lakh.
The scheme is disbursed in two installments depending on the season, namely Kharif and Rabi. Usually the first installment of Kharif season money is distributed between April to September and the second installment of Rabi season money is distributed between October and March of the following year.
This year, the first installment of Krishak bandhu project has been released before monsoon. Remittance of kharif season money to the bank accounts of around 10.5 crore farmers of the state started from June 13. The government survey showed that 95% of the farmers in the state have received their money so far, and among the remaining 5% of the farmers, there are some new farmers whose accounts are yet to be credited, the remittance process has been initiated.
A senior official of the agriculture department said that since the farmers received assistance before the arrival of the monsoons, they could prepare cultivation plans such as preparing the seed bed first and also prepare the seedlings as soon as the monsoons arrived.
Farmers are forced to reduce their cultivable land due to abnormally high prices of fertilizers and other agricultural inputs used in farming. But it is hoped that if aid arrives on time, farmers will be able to cultivate slightly more land this year.
The state government had set a target of 70 lakh tonnes of paddy this year. But only 49 lakh tonnes of paddy has been harvested so far, and the number is unlikely to increase further as the new harvest season begins in a month.
One of the objectives of the Krishak Bandhu scheme is to encourage and provide financial support to farmers in agriculture. However, an official in this regard said that until a farmer gets a fair price for his produce, he cannot be encouraged to grow the crop in a larger area. Besides, some officials say that the pre-monsoon subsidy is certainly a laudable initiative, but the government should come up with an effective procurement plan to help farmers get fair prices.
It is learned that in future, more procurement centers may be set up in the state and additional incentives may be provided in addition to centrally fixed prices for procurement of paddy to encourage farmers to produce the crop.
Krishak Bandhu, when will the money come in?
In the Krishak Bandhu scheme, rabi season money is usually paid in December, but this year the second installment will be paid to the farmers by November, the block office informed.
Due to natural calamities this year, farmers’ crops have been damaged a lot, especially potato farmers have suffered huge losses this year. Apart from this, due to failure to apply pesticides and fertilizers to the land at the right time, the production of crops has also decreased significantly.
Considering all these circumstances, it has been decided to disburse the second installment of Krishak Bandhu Scheme in the month of November. According to various sources, rabi season payment will start from second week of October or first week of November and in that case payment will be made in two phases, first phase to old farmers and second phase to new farmers.
The main reason for such phased payment is that in case of new farmers it will take some time to complete the steps of data upload, approval, validation, hence delay in disbursement of money to them.
On the other hand, in case of older farmers, they will normally get the money earlier as the validation steps are quicker. It is learned that the payment of money to all the farmers will be completed by the month of November.
Krishak Bandhu Status Check 2024
It is very important to check the status to ensure that a farmer will get the money of this project, because in this case, only those farmers whose status is showing “Account Valid” will be given money. So every farmer should go to the bank at least every six months and check if E-KYC is done with their account number, because in every installment many farmers are deprived of this assistance due to this problem.
In getting the assistance money under this scheme we have seen that the money came a little late for the new farmers, the main reason being that their status showed “Account Valid” long after “Ada Uploaded” and “Dda Approved” first, so their money got very late. has been sent In the case of some farmers, even after sending money from the block office, their payment was delayed due to server problems.
The block office has informed that the farmers whose status is showing “Payment Success” but have not received the money, due to lack of eKYC of the bank account, money deposit was not possible. However, for this reason, money will not be sent to these farmers a second time.
The block office has also informed that the process of remittance will be completed by 20th of August.
In the case of Krishak Bandhu status check, the following points should be noted:
- If a farmer’s Aadhaar card name or date of birth is misspelled, it must be corrected quickly at the Aadhaar center, otherwise you may not get the money due to wrong linking.
- If a farmer does not show aadhaar number and kbid number in his status, he should immediately visit the nearest block office and apply for aadhaar linking. Original Aadhaar Card, Voter Card and its xerox copy must be carried while submitting the attachment application form and submit it with your own signature on the xerox copy. After 7 to 10 days of application status check you will see your aadhar number and kbid number.
- For those farmers who have to submit the Aadhaar linking form, the block office will inform them about the problem through a message on their mobile number.
- Farmers who are showing ‘Delete Farmer’ in the status box should immediately visit the block office and resubmit the form with fresh land documents and photocopies of voter and Aadhaar cards.
- Farmers who want to add new bank account number, have to submit photocopy of passbook in block office.
- Farmers whose status shows ‘No Data Found’ should contact block office with land documents and voter card and Aadhaar card.
