PM-KUSUM and Solar Leases on Farmland: What a Rajasthan Landowner Should Checkपीएम-कुसुम और खेत पर सोलर लीज़: राजस्थान के भू-स्वामी क्या जाँचें

संक्षेप में: पीएम-कुसुम में खेत की ज़मीन से जुड़ा हिस्सा केवल कंपोनेंट-A है — 500 किलोवाट से 2 मेगावाट तक के सौर संयंत्र, सबस्टेशन के पास। किसान ख़ुद संयंत्र लगा सकता है या ज़मीन डेवलपर को लीज़ पर दे सकता है; किराया दोनों पक्ष आपस में तय करते हैं, और डिस्कॉम लीज़ के विवाद की ज़िम्मेदारी नहीं लेता। अभी की योजना में वही प्रोजेक्ट पूरे हो सकते हैं जिनका PPA या नोटिस टू प्रोसीड 31 दिसंबर 2025 तक जारी हुआ था। कुसुम 2.0 अभी शुरू नहीं हुई है। लीज़ पर दस्तख़त से पहले वकील से पढ़वाएँ — इससे कोई आमदनी पक्की नहीं होती।

What was reported, and what it does not say

On 23 October 2026 an IANS report from Jaipur, carried by Punjab Kesari, said Rajasthan leads the country under PM-KUSUM with 5.57 GW of decentralised solar capacity installed so far, and that more than 3.78 lakh farmers have benefited. The report gives them as the state government’s record, without naming a source. The report did not say which parts of the scheme they cover.

That gap matters if you own land. In August 2026 the Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy told the Lok Sabha that Rajasthan had commissioned more than 1,236 MW under Component A since 2021-22, the most of any state, as Construction World reported. Component A is the part that puts plants on farmers’ land. So the 5.57 GW headline is not a count of plants on leased farmland. Nor does it tell you whether the substation nearest your land has any capacity left.

The scheme in three parts, as MNRE defines them

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s consolidated guidelines set out three components:

• Component A — 10,000 MW of decentralised ground- or stilt-mounted grid-connected solar or other renewable power plants, set up “by farmers on their land”, each of 500 kW to 2 MW. This is the only part about land.
• Component B — 14 lakh stand-alone solar agriculture pumps, including pumps that replace diesel ones.
• Component C — solarisation of 35 lakh grid-connected agriculture pumps, including feeder-level solarisation. Rajasthan’s Saur Krishi Ajivika Yojana (SKAY) was set up under this component, not under A, as Mercom India reported in 2022.

The scheme was launched on 8 March 2019 and, in August 2022, extended to March 2026. In late March 2026 MNRE extended the completion date to 31 March 2027, but only for projects whose power purchase agreement (PPA) or notice to proceed was issued on or before 31 December 2025. By 1 October 2026 it had moved the last date for financial closure under Components A and C to 30 November 2026, and had said no completion date would be extended beyond 31 March 2027, Energética India reported. PM-KUSUM 2.0 is still being finalised and has not been launched.

What follows for you: someone who approaches you today “under KUSUM” is either finishing a project sanctioned by the end of 2025, or talking about a scheme that does not exist yet. Ask which, and ask for the paper.

Who can lease land under Component A, and how

MNRE’s guidelines call the owner of a Component A plant the Renewable Power Generator. It can be an individual farmer, a group of farmers, a cooperative, a panchayat, a farmer producer organisation or a water user association. They “can opt for developing” the plant “through developer(s)”, or a farmer may give the land to the discom, which then becomes the generator. “In such a case, the land owner will get lease rent as mutually agreed between the parties.” The plant should preferably be within five kilometres of the substation. The discom works out how much capacity each rural 33/11 kV substation can take, publishes it, invites applications, and buys the power for 25 years at a tariff fixed in advance. Where applications exceed the capacity, it holds a bid.

Rajasthan’s discoms have run Component A through expressions of interest (EOIs) that name substations. The Ajmer discom’s EOI dated 30 October 2024 shows what a landowner is drawn into:

• Plants go on “unused / barren land of farmers” within five kilometres of a 33/11 kV substation, at around 1.5–2 hectares per MW.
• The lease is “a bi-partite agreement between the farmer and the developer”. The discom is not responsible if the land is not leased, and takes no part in any dispute between landowner and developer.
• The developer must produce a land lease “applicable for 26 years”, including nine months to commission the plant, on non-judicial stamp paper.
• The developer is “solely responsible” for finding the land, and must arrange other land if yours becomes disputed after the award.
• For that EOI only, the discom set an indicative annual lease rent per hectare, in bands tied to the land’s DLC rate, to be escalated 5% every two years. We do not reproduce the amounts: they belong to one tender, and the next one may say something else, or nothing. Read the EOI that names your substation.

In practice, then, the person who can lease is a farmer whose land lies near a substation a discom has notified, and who holds the land in his or her own right. If the khata is joint, have every co-sharer sign — see batwara and partition. Putting your land on a register, such as the one Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation opened to landowners, is a listing, not an allotment.

What changes for the land and the record

You stay the owner. What you give is the use of the land for the term. Three things change on paper.

• The use. Rule 6B of the Rajasthan Land Revenue (Conversion of Agricultural Land for Non-Agricultural Purposes in Rural Areas) Rules, 2007 says “a khatedar tenant may use or sublet his khatedari land” for a solar plant, and “no conversion shall be required for such use”. The khatedar informs the Tehsildar and the Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation in Form E thirty days before the use begins. Land held above the ceiling limit needs the State Government’s prior approval — see land ceiling limits.
• The jamabandi. Under the same rule, “the Tehsildar shall put a note in Jamabandi regarding such use of land.” Ask for a copy of that entry.
• The rules themselves. An amendment of 29 April 2026 (G.S.R. 11) brought renewable energy projects into the conversion framework, with concessional charges and time-bound disposal, as TeamLease RegTech summarised it. News reports say new rural conversion rules replace the 2007 rules from 2 November 2026 — see our note on the 2026 rules. We have read neither gazette text, and cannot tell you whether the Rule 6B route survives. Ask the Tehsildar in writing which route applies to your parcel, and make the lease say who files and who pays.

The lease should also be registered. Section 17(1)(d) of the Registration Act, 1908 makes registration compulsory for “leases of immovable property from year to year, or for any term exceeding one year, or reserving a yearly rent”, as the Supreme Court quoted it in Siri Chand v. Surinder Singh (2020). Ask your advocate to confirm the lease is registered, not just stamped.

Questions to ask if your land is near a substation

1. Which substation, and which EOI or tender names it? Ask for the document, not a summary of it.
2. What does the developer hold, and of what date? A letter of award, a PPA, a notice to proceed. Under the current scheme, the PPA or notice to proceed had to be issued by 31 December 2025.
3. Has financial closure been reached? The deadline is 30 November 2026. A project without it may not be built at all.
4. When does rent start? On signing, on financial closure, or on commissioning? The gap can be more than a year.
5. How is rent paid? The amount per hectare, the escalation, the date each year, the account, and what happens after a missed payment.
6. What if the plant is late or never built? MNRE’s guidelines cut a plant’s PPA capacity to what has been commissioned once a delay passes six months. The lease should say what then happens to the land you gave and the rent you were promised.
7. Can the developer pass the lease on? To another company, or to a lender as security? Then you may be dealing with a stranger for most of the term.
8. What comes back at the end? Who removes foundations, cables and fencing, to what condition the soil is restored, and what security backs that promise.
9. Fire and damage. Who insures the plant, and who pays for damage to your remaining land, crops, animals or a neighbour’s field.

The risks that last

• Lock-in and exit. Twenty-six years binds people who are children today; succession, partition or a child who wants to farm all happen inside the term. Read who can end the lease, and on what notice. A lease the developer can leave easily and you cannot is a one-way door.
• Payment default. The discom pays the generator for power; it does not pay you. Your claim for rent is against the developer alone.
• Restoration. Decades under panels, foundations and cabling is not decades of fallow. A restoration clause with no money behind it is a sentence, not security.
• Fire. A plant is electrical equipment on open land. The lease should say who keeps firebreaks clear, who insures, and who pays if fire spreads. The fire reported at Dudu, beside the Jaipur–Ajmer highway, on 23 October 2026 was at a solar company’s production unit, not at a plant on farmland, according to Rajasthan Patrika and Amar Ujala; no one was reported hurt. It says nothing about farm plants either way. The question still belongs in your lease.

Our note on twelve terms in a solar land lease covers escalation, assignment and access in detail; the solar and BESS land page covers the developer side. Approached in the Phulera–Sambhar–Naraina–Rupangarh belt? Message us on WhatsApp +91 92502 13833 to have the records checked first.

Questions · अक्सर पूछे सवाल

Sources

1. Punjab Kesari (IANS), Jaipur, 23 October 2026 — the 5.57 GW and 3.78 lakh farmers figures, given as the state government’s record without a named source.
2. MNRE — Guidelines for implementation of PM-KUSUM (consolidated, PDF) — the three components and their targets, who may set up a Component A plant, the developer and lease-rent sentence, the five-kilometre preference, 25-year PPA, applications and bidding, and the six-month delay rule.
3. Energética India, 30 March 2026, and Renewable Watch, 31 March 2026 — completion extended to 31 March 2027 for projects with a PPA or notice to proceed by 31 December 2025.
4. Energética India, 1 October 2026 — financial closure to 30 November 2026, no extension beyond 31 March 2027, PM-KUSUM 2.0 not yet launched.
5. Construction World, 7 August 2026 — the Lok Sabha reply on Rajasthan’s Component A capacity.
6. Ajmer Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd — EOI for PM-KUSUM Component A, dated 30.10.2024 (copy hosted by JMK Research, PDF) — land, distance, lease term, bipartite lease, responsibility for land, indicative rent structure.
7. Mercom India, 28 November 2022 — SKAY formulated under Component C.
8. Prayas (Energy Group), 30 April 2020 — RRECL’s invitation to landowners to register land for lease.
9. LegitQuest — text of Rule 6B and Form E of the 2007 rural conversion rules, as transcribed there.
10. TeamLease RegTech, 7 May 2026 — the April 2026 amendment (G.S.R. 11).
11. Supreme Court of India, Siri Chand v. Surinder Singh, 17 June 2020 (PDF) — quoting Section 17(1)(d) of the Registration Act, 1908.
12. Rajasthan Patrika, 23 October 2026, and Amar Ujala, 24 October 2026, both in Hindi — the Dudu fire, at a production unit.