Over 51 Lakh Farmers Benefited from KALIA Scheme: Odisha Agriculture Minister

Bhubaneswar:  As many as 51,05,290 farmers in Odisha have so far been benefited from the State Government’s flagship Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme. The State Government has planned to cover a total of 75 lakh farmers under the innovative scheme.

This has been informed by Odisha Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo in the Assembly today ridiculing the allegations by the BJP legislators that the State Government has failed in implementation of the flagship scheme.

Replying to the Adjournment Motion moved by BJP over the KALIA scheme, the Agriculture Minister said that the BJD-led government has taken a slew of measures for the successful implementation of the scheme.

The Minister asserted that various committees have been formed to effectively implement the scheme.

A State Level Committee headed by the Chief Secretary and an Executive Committee headed by the Principal Secretary of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment Department have been formed for the implementation of the KALIA scheme.

Besides, the District Level Committee headed by the Collector and the Block Level Committee headed by the Block Development Officer (BDO) have also been formed for the scheme, the Minister stated.

The State of Bank of India (SBI) has been selected for disbursal of the financial assistance to the eligible farmers through direct benefit transfer (DBT) with cooperation of the State Level Bank Committee (SLBC), he said.

Explaining about the data of selection of beneficiaries, the Minister informed that the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) list  prepared by the Agriculture Department and list prepared by the Cooperation Department of the sharecroppers for paddy procurement have been used at the primary level.

The Minister further informed that the red and green application forms have been issued  for inclusion and exclusion of names of farmers in the scheme.  Red forms have been provided for exclusion of names of ineligible beneficiaries, while Green applications are for those farmers whose name does not appears in beneficiary list but the farmers are eligible.