PM-Kisan Row: Farmers Forced To Prove They Are Alive For Aid Across Bhopal

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): They are alive, farming their land and standing before government offices, but on paper, they are dead. In Madhya Pradesh, farmers who have been wrongly declared deceased in official records are being forced to run from one office to another to prove that they are still alive.

Their "dead" status has stopped their PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi payments, leaving them deprived of financial assistance meant for farmers.

For these farmers, proving their existence has become a battle against the government system. They have submitted Aadhaar details, documents and applications, met officials and repeatedly sought corrections in the records. Yet, instead of receiving the money, they say they are being sent from one office to another with nothing but assurances.

Farmer trying to prove he is alive for four years

In Patlon village of Chand tehsil in Chhindwara district, Bretna Yadav has been fighting this battle for the past four years. Although he is alive, government records show him as dead. Because of this, he has been denied the benefits of the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme.

Yadav said PM-Kisan instalments were credited to his bank account for two to three months of 2022. The payments suddenly stopped after that. Initially, he assumed it was a technical problem and approached local officials.

Later, after obtaining the relevant records, Yadav discovered that he had been declared dead in the government system. Since then, he has repeatedly visited government offices and approached officials to establish that he is alive and get his records corrected.

Farmer leader also declared dead on paper

In Raisen, farmer and Jagrut Kisan Union leader Irfan Jafri has faced a similar problem. Jafri said he has not received PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi payments for the past eight months. "I have repeatedly spoken to the tehsildar, but there is no proper response.

They say they will look into it and do something, but I am simply being sent from one place to another," Jafri said. He said officials asked him to submit his Aadhaar number and other details, which he provided. However, despite repeated visits, the problem has not been resolved.

Jafri also claimed that he is not the only farmer facing the issue and that several other farmers in the area have allegedly been declared dead in official records despite being alive.

Declared dead since 2021

A farmer from Hatwasengar village in Naigarhi tehsil of Mauganj, Lalmani Mishra, has been officially recorded as dead in the PM-Kisan records since 2021.

Mishra said that at the age of 93, repeatedly visiting government offices is extremely difficult and painful. He is alive and continues to cultivate his land himself, but his DBT payments have been stopped because the government records show him as deceased.

According to Mishra, he has already submitted complaints through the CM Helpline, approached the Naigarhi tehsildar and submitted applications to the local patwari four to five times.

Revenue department to look into complaints

Speaking to Free Press, principal secretary of revenue department E Ramesh Kumar said, "I haven’t encountered any such instance so far. However, if any such complaint comes to us, we will promptly look into it and resolve it."