Bahujan Samaj Party President Mayawati on Sunday said the Centre’s income scheme for farmers was an insult to its beneficiaries, and the “little monetary help” was “atrocious and arrogant”.

“Rs 500 a month to poor farmers under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi is an insult of farmers,” Mayawati said in a tweet. “Farmers believe in their labour and want remunerative price of their produce but BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party’s] mentality to give them little monetary help is atrocious and arrogant. Giving Rs 17 per day to few farmers just before Lok Sabha elections is pure hoodwinking.”

Mayawati also said the scheme was a result of “petty and immature” thinking of the BJP government at the Centre, PTI reported. The scheme has been brought in a hurry and forced on people like demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax, she claimed.

The scheme was announced in the Interim Budget on February 1, and was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gorakhpur earlier on Sunday. It will give farmers with land up to two hectares Rs 6,000 per year in their bank accounts in three equal instalments. Around 12 crore farmers are expected to benefit from the scheme. The scheme will cost the government Rs 75,000 crore in 2019-’20.

The first instalment of Rs 2,000 each to over one crore farmers will be transferred on Sunday, according to PTI. Another one crore farmers are expected to be covered in the next two to three days.