Why states' farmer schemes are making deeper inroads than PM-KISAN

Just around 20% of 8.60 crore beneficiaries registered so far under PM-KISAN have received their third installment and the cut-off date is November-end

Manjeet Singh (name changed), a farmer from Punjab’s Tarn Taran, was clueless why he was not able to avail the third instalment of money under the nationwide cash transfer scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sammaan Yojana (PM-KISAN). His instalment was rejected due to, of all things, his mother tongue. His Aadhaar authentication failed as records in the bank concerned were in English, but Aadhaar details were in Gurmukhi. Aadhaar seeding—linking it with the bank and the scheme—is a mandatory requirement under PM-KISAN for getting the third installment of Rs 2,000.

But, Manjeet isn’t alone. Latest data shows that by September 20,