A day after the Odisha government announced to execute the second installment of fund provision under the KALIA scheme, opposition came out with a slew of questions on its transparency.
Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) the main opposition party in Odisha, sought answers from the government on the status of the24 lakh unmet KALIA beneficiaries in the first installment.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, on May 29, had announced to provide KISAN benefit cover to 75 lakh farmers and farm laborers in Odisha. As per the government statement, 51 lakh farmers have got their Rs 5000 in the first installment. BJP has asked for clarification on those 24 lakh farmers who had not got benefit in the first phase of allotment. BJP has also demanded a white paper detail on the KALIA beneficiaries in Odisha.
On October 29 Odisha government announced to transfer the second installment of KALIA – money in November.
BJP Vice President Samir Mohanty has raised the questions in a presser on Wednesday. He complained that in the lot there were farmers who had got the payment message on the mobile but not the credit on their accounts.
In December last year, the Odisha government came up with a monetary- benefits package named KALIA for the augmentation of the agrarian livelihood. The government has set to spend Rs 10000 crore under the scheme in three years. A small or Marginal farmer will get a sum of Rs 5000 as support before the crop season-twice a year and five times in total till 2020-21.
Besides the Rs 25000 package for farmers in the small and marginal category including farm laborers, the scheme has the provision of Rs 12500 assistance for the landless farmers to pursue ancillary agriculture.
Naveen Patnaik opened the first lot of fund transfer on January 26 this year, before the transfer of the second installment felt the resistance of the Model Code of Conduct in the run-up to the general elections.
The scheme met controversies of favoritism and nepotism over its implementation. This led the Odisha government to review the beneficiaries list after which the government disqualified 3.41 lakh persons on the list.
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