Bhubaneswar: A day after Agriculture Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo had issued a statement to the media about 3.41 lakh fake beneficiaries of KALIA (Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation) scheme, the ruling BJD on Wednesday clarified that only 32,000 ineligible beneficiaries had availed benefits under the scheme.
Speaking to media, Rajya Sabha member and BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb said, “Three lakh beneficiaries are belonging to the same family and they will not be provided with the financial assistance in the next phase and the money they have received earlier will be adjusted accordingly.”
The Agriculture Minister had said that of the 51,05,290 KALIA beneficiaries registered till May 29 this year and 3.41 lakh were found to be ineligible.
Meanwhile speaking to media on reaching New Delhi this afternoon, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that efforts are on to retrieve the money from the ineligible beneficiaries.