Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo on Wednesday informed the State Assembly that 45,965 beneficiaries of the Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation(KALIA) scheme have been detected as ineligible.
In response to questions of BJP member Madan Mohan Dutta, BJD Members Bhupinder Singh, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik and Pratap Keshari Deb and Congress member Tara Prasad Bahinipati, the Minister said that 51,05,290 beneficiaries have been provided financial assistance of Rs 5,000 each under the KALIA scheme between January and May 2019, while the total amount paid is Rs 2552,64,50,000.
The beneficiaries who have received the first installment include 36,34,710 small and marginal farmers and 14,70,580 landless farm labourers.
The information regarding enrolled KALIA beneficiaries block-wise and district-wise lists are now available at kalia.co.in now, he said.
He informed that 45,965 beneficiaries have been found ineligible during the verification. They have received a total of Rs 22,98,25,000 and efforts have been initiated to recover the money from them.
The Minister said that no ghost beneficiary has been included under the KALIA scheme.
He said payments of second installment have started in November. Efforts are on to include all the left-out eligible farmers under the scheme, he said.
