NEW DELHI: The Centre has identified more than 31 lakh beneficiaries of the income support scheme (PM-Kisan) as suspected cases where both husband and wife had received cash simultaneously against the rule of getting the benefit by only one member of the landholder family.Finding such cases during scrutiny, the agriculture ministry has asked states and UTs to carry out verification exercises and weed out such beneficiaries from the list by October 15, ahead of the disbursement of the 21st instalment of assistance under PM-Kisan.It is learnt verification of around 19 lakh out of total 31 lakh cases has been completed where nearly 94% of the cases have been confirmed as husband and wife beneficiaries.Under the scheme, financial assistance of Rs 6,000 in three equal instalments, every four months, is transferred into bank accounts of each of landholder farmers’ families. So far, 20 instalments have been released to over 9.7 crore landholder farmers since the launch of the scheme in February, 2019. The ministry had earlier detected over 33 lakh suspected cases where the landowners’ details were found invalid.
