New Delhi: By the middle of next year, the PM Modigovernment would have direct connectivity with over 11.5 crore farmers andtheir families across India, making it a communication exercise hithertounprecedented in scale. If all goes well, the massive data bank on the farmerswould be ready for release by June 2020.

A top-level committee, headed by Union Agriculture SecretarySanjay Agarwal, is working in tandem with the Information and TechnologyMinistry and its National e-governance Division (NEGD) wing, to meet thedeadline of the mega data project, set by the Prime Minister`s Office.

With the help of this database and the use of technology,the life of the small and marginal farmers of the country would witness a seachange. The data will empower the farmers as well as the state to access allfinancial and farming-related information, ranging from soil testing to floodalerts, and from satellite imagery to land revenue records.

"The data, once ready by the next six months, wouldenable the farmer to have access to all sorts of market information. It iscertainly going to be a game-changer in the rural sector," a seniorofficial of the Union Agriculture and Farmers Affairs Ministry told IANS addingthat "besides the Agriculture Secretary, former IT Secretary J.Satyanarayana, the man behind implementation of Aadhar card scheme, and severalIT experts, are looking after the database project".

Prime Minister Modi`s dream project PM-KISAN (Kisan SammanNidhi), which aims at providing assistance of Rs 6,000 to each farmer everyyear, seems to be a source of inspiration for gathering such mammoth data fromacross the country. As of now, data of 7.20 crore farmers have been collectedunder the PM KISAN scheme. From Uttar Pradesh alone, a data of 2.10 crorefarmers have been included in the data bank.

Sources said that all the data is cross-checked by thePublic Fund Management System (PFMS) to ensure that money credited to afarmer`s bank account, reaches the right place. As of now, the government hasreleased Rs 33,000 crore to the poor farmers since the scheme was launched inDecember last year.

The PM KISAN scheme, which has given crucial financialassistance to marginalised farmers was initially not welcomed by two states -Delhi and West Bengal. Later, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had a secondthought over the benefits provided to the farmers under PM KISAN and recentlyagreed to join Modi`s scheme. However, West Bengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee yet remains a vocal critic of the scheme as she thinks the assistancegiven to farmers is an attempt of the Centre, to grab the attention of the poorfor votes.

On the other hand, the BJP is of the view that Banerjee`s"narrow-minded" politics has deprived the farmers of their right to getfinancial assistance of the government. Data suggests that 70 lakh marginalisedfarmers are still struggling in West Bengal to seek the benefits of the UnionGovernment`s scheme.