When farmers hit the streets seeking minimum support price on several crops in February, the Narendra Modi government had pointed to its signature scheme – the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi – to tomtom its efforts for agricultural welfare.
But this scheme has had a list of misses too difficult to ignore. Most importantly, the promise to double farm incomes remains far behind the government’s target, and there’s no room for the landless farmer – anywhere between 2.4 crore to 5.37 crore families have been left out. That’s besides several instances of fraud and wastage.
