<span style="color: #222222;">The Cabinet today gave its approval to relax the mandatory requirement of Aadhaar data seeding for beneficiaries of Assam, Meghalaya and Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh for release of benefits to them under PM-Kisan Scheme upto 31st March next year.<br />''<br />''From 1st December, last year, release of benefits is done only through Aadhaar seeded data of beneficiaries uploaded by the State and UT Governments on the PM-KISAN portal, except in case of the States of Assam and Meghalaya and the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, which have been given exemption from this requirement till 31st March this year as Aadhaar penetration there has been miniscule.<br />''<br />''It has been assessed that it would take much more time for the States of Assam and Meghalaya and the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to complete the work of Aadhaar seeding of data of beneficiaries and the beneficiaries of these States / UTs may not be able to avail the benefits of the Scheme from 1st April onwards, if the relaxation from mandatory requirement of Aadhaar seeding of data is not extended.<br />''<br />''The total number of beneficiary farmers in these States and UTs who have been paid at least one installment as on 8th April this year are 27 lakh 9 thousand 586 beneficiaries in Assam, 98 thousand 915 beneficiaries in Meghalaya and 10 lakh 1 thousand 668 beneficiaries in Jammu and Kashmir including Ladakh.<br />''<br />''The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme aims to provide income support to all landholder farmer families across the country with cultivable land, subject to certain exclusions. Under the Scheme, an amount of 6 thousand rupees per year is released in three 4-monthly instalments of 2 thousand rupees each directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. </span>