BHUBANESWAR: The opposition BJP and Congress on Saturday came down heavily on the State Government in the Assembly for launching the KALIA scheme without proper identification of beneficiaries and adequate budget provision only to influence the farmers who constitute a large chunk of voters.
The issue cropped up during discussion on the admissibility of an adjournment motion notice brought by the opposition members.
The government was on the back foot and Agriculture Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo could not reply to several questions raised by the Opposition on the selection of beneficiaries, budget provision for the scheme and identification of the beneficiaries.
Participating in the discussion, leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Narasingh Mishra questioned the Minister’s claim of providing financial assistance to 51,05,290 farmers.
“If a farmer was given financial assistance of Rs 10,000 in two instalments of Rs 5000 each, the total financial involvement will be around Rs 5,105 crore,” Mishra said and asked from where the Government managed to provide such a huge amount of money.
The CLP leader said when the scheme was launched in January, the government had drawn Rs 1,400 crore from the contingency fund for making payments to the farmers. Mishra asked from where the government has managed the balance funds.
He also wanted a clarification from the Minister about sharecroppers who were mentioned in the original scheme as beneficiaries.
“The reply furnished by the Minister has now left out the sharecroppers from the list of beneficiaries,” he said and asked whether the government has any proof about the number of farmers who received financial assistance under the scheme.
Stating that the government’s claim of providing financial assistance to the farmers is only an eyewash, Mishra alleged that to whichever village he visited, the farmers said they had not received any money.
He demanded that the government should raise minimum support price (MSP) of paddy like Chhattisgarh, announce loan waiver upto two lakh for farmers and stop implementation of KALIA scheme which will not help the farmers.
His party colleague Suresh Kumar Routray also alleged that KALIA scheme is a total failure. The government had announced the scheme before the elections to woo the farmers, Routray said and added that only members of the Biju Yuva Vahini and BJD workers benefited from it.
Opposition chief whip Mohan Majhi also criticised the government for its failure in selection of beneficiaries under the scheme.
Making a statement in response, Agriculture Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo said the Government will make the list of farmers public in August. Sahu said a majority of the selected beneficiaries of KALIA Yojana are having accounts in the State Bank of India (SBI). Stating that several committees have been formed to effectively implement KALIA Yojana, he said a State level committee has been formed under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary.
BJP boycotts the debate
BJP members did not participate in the discussion on the admissibility of an adjournment motion on KALIA in protest after Deputy Speaker Rajani Kanta Singh asked Opposition chief whip Mohan Charan Majhi to shorten his speech.
They were agitated as Singh asked Majhi to stop when the latter had spoken for already 20 minutes. Singh reminded him that a member should make a short statement while speaking in any adjournment motion.