Madhya Pradesh to suspend financial aid to farmers engaging in stubble burning

The Madhya Pradesh government on Tuesday announced that it will penalise farmers engaging in stubble burning by suspending their financial assistance under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme for a year, PTI reported.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme, better known as PM-Kisan, farmers are eligible to receive Rs 6,000 annually from the Union government, disbursed in three instalments of Rs 2,000 each every four months. The funds are directly transferred to their bank accounts.

In Madhya Pradesh, eligible farmers receive Rs 12,000 under the scheme – Rs 6,000 from the Union government and an additional equal amount from the state government.

The state Cabinet also said that agricultural produce from farmers involved in the activity will not be bought at minimum support price for a year.

The price is a guaranteed amount paid to farmers when the government buys their produce.

“The state government is taking strict measures to control stubble burning that causes pollution,” the news agency quoted state Urban Development and Housing Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya as saying.

The minister said that the state government did not want to penalise farmers. “But our farmer brothers should not cause big losses for small gains because their own children will also suffer if the environment is impacted,” he said.

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