Ninth installment of PM-Kisan released; PM pitches edible oil self-reliance

Uttar Pradesh accounts for the highest number of farmers – 2.23 crore – who got their installment in the latest round. The state is followed by Maharashtra (1.12 crore farmers) and Madhya Pradesh (81.14 lakh). In West Bengal, 26.86 lakh farmers have received the PM-Kisan installment. In the previous round, transferred on May 14, a little over 7 lakh farmers in West Bengal had received their entitlements under the PM-Kisan. The state implemented the scheme from the current financial year.

Speaking via videoconference at an event to release the installment, Prime Minister Modi interacted with beneficiaries of the scheme.

He also highlighted the need for becoming self-reliant in production of edible oil.

“We have seen that self-reliance is not enough only in wheat, rice, sugar, but self-reliance in pulses and [edible] oil is also very necessary. Whatever work we did in pulses, or in wheat and paddy in the past, now we have to take the same resolution for the production of edible oil also. To make our country self-reliance in the edible oil, we have to work fast,” Modi said.

“Today, when the country is remembering the Quit India Movement, on this historic day, this resolve fills us with new energy. Through the National Edible Oil Mission-Oil Palm mission, more than Rs 11,000 crore will be invested in the edible oil ecosystem,” the Prime Minister said.

According to the PM, Rs 1.60 lakh crore have been transferred in farmers’ bank accounts under the PM-Kisan so far.