Odisha CM Majhi joins PM Kisan Utsav as 35 lakh farmers get 24th instalment
Synopsis
Key Takeaways
More than 35 lakh farmer families in Odisha woke up on Friday, 30 October 2026 to find money in their bank accounts — no middleman, no queue, no delay. Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi addressed the state-level 'PM Kisan Utsav' in Bhubaneswar as Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually launched the 24th instalment of the PM-KISAN scheme from Banaskantha, Gujarat, triggering a nationwide Direct Benefit Transfer to eligible farming households.
What the 24th instalment means for Odisha's farmers
Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme, each eligible farmer family receives Rs 6,000 per year in fixed instalments, transferred directly into verified bank accounts via DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer). The 24th instalment release, initiated virtually by PM Modi from Banaskantha, means over 35 lakh Odisha households received their share in a single coordinated transfer on Friday. The Chief Minister's Office confirmed the amounts landed 'directly' — ସିଧାସଳଖ — into beneficiary accounts.
Odisha has consistently been among India's states with the highest PM-KISAN enrolment, owing to its large agrarian population. The parallel state-level PM Kisan Utsav in Bhubaneswar served as both a distribution milestone and a public outreach moment, with CM Majhi addressing farmers assembled at the event.
Banaskantha as the national launchpad
PM Modi's choice of Banaskantha, Gujarat as the virtual launch venue follows a pattern of using symbolically or agronomically significant districts to anchor central scheme releases. The Prime Minister addressed the nation from there before the DBT transfers were simultaneously activated across all states and union territories. Odisha's Utsav was one of many state-level mirror events held in tandem.
PM-KISAN's seven-year track record
Launched in February 2019, PM-KISAN was designed to provide predictable income support to landholding farmer families, bypassing traditional subsidy chains. The scheme operates as a central sector scheme — funded entirely by the Union government — and delivers instalments three to four times a year. With the 24th instalment now released, the scheme has maintained an unbroken cadence of payouts for over seven years, cementing DBT as the architecture of farm welfare delivery in India.
For Odisha's farmers, the Utsav was a reminder that this cadence holds — and that the next instalment cycle has already begun.