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Senior Congress leader and former finance Minister P Chidambaram has termed the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s famer outreach as a “bribe for votes” and said the “greater shame” is that the Election Commission is unable to stop it.
Today is the ‘Cash for Vote’ day.
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) February 24, 2019
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Rs 75,000-crore Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi ( PMKSN) scheme in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, by transferring the first instalment of Rs 2,000 each to over one crore farmers.
“Today is the ‘Cash for Vote’ day. The BJP government will officially give a bribe of Rs 2000 per agricultural family to get their votes,” Chidambaram said in a series if tweets.
PM launches ‘Cash for Votes’ scheme. After driving farmers into debt and acute distress, BJP is desperately trying to placate them with crumbs of Rs 17 per day per family!
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) February 25, 2019
The money will go to the cultivating farmer as well as the absentee landlord, the former finance minister said.
Under the scheme, another one crore farmers will be covered in the next 2-3 days, an Agriculture Ministry official had said.
In the interim Budget 2019-20, the central government had announced the PM-KISAN scheme under which Rs 6,000 per year will be given in three instalments to 12 crore small and marginal farmers holding cultivable land up to two hectares.
