New Delhi, Dec 10 (IANS): Over 2.04 crore farmers from Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) have benefited from the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme, Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

The 18th instalment of the scheme was released in October to 9.58 crore farmers comprising 1.16 crore SC farmers, 88.34 lakh ST farmers, and 7.54 crore farmers in the 'others' category, the figures furnished by the minister show.

The minister also said the government has implemented several measures to ensure seamless registration, particularly for SC, ST and OBC communities facing land ownership documentation challenges.

In answer to another question, Union Minister of State for Agriculture Ram Nath Thakur said more than Rs 3.46 lakh crore has been disbursed in 18 instalments to farmers since the inception of the scheme.

To ensure the timely and transparent transfer of funds to farmers through DBT, several technological interventions have been made under PM-KISAN, which includes integration with the Public Financial Management System (PFMS), UIDAI and the Income Tax Department, he explained.

Further, land seeding was made mandatory along with Aadhar-based payment and e-KYC. As and when the farmers complete their mandatory requirements, they receive the benefits of the scheme along with their due instalments, if any, he added.

To ensure the prompt resolution of issues faced by the farmers under the PM-KISAN scheme, the Government has developed an exclusive grievance mechanism “Help Desk”, a dedicated module for raising grievances by the farmers, the minister said.

This module has been incorporated under the “farmers’ Corner” of the PM-KISAN Portal through which the grievance of the farmer is directly transferred to the Nodal Officer of the concerned States/UTs.

Further to facilitate the farmers to get resolution of their queries/issues, the AI-based Kisan eMitra Chatbot was launched which provides quick, accurate, and clear responses to farmers' queries around the clock and currently operates in 11 languages, making the system more accessible and user-friendly. It is accessible on all platforms such as web, mobile, etc. Till date, more than 90 lakh queries of farmers have been answered on the portal. Farmers can also register their grievances through the CPGRAMS Portal, he added.