BHUBANESWAR: The BJP on Thursday came down heavily on the State Government for depriving eligible farmers of benefit under Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme.
Even as the Centre has released the sixth dose of assistance under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Nidhi Samman (PM-Kisan) Yojana, the Government is not making public about the number of farmers covered under its welfare scheme or the amount of money disbursed so far.
Reacting sharply to the Wednesday statement of Principal Secretary of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Saurabh Garg after the Agriculture Cabinet meeting that the process of verification of eligible farmers is still on, State BJP general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan and BJP Kishan Morcha president Pradip Purohit said this is nothing but to mislead the farmers.
The two BJP leaders said over 36.70 lakh farmers of the State had received the first instalment of PM-Kisan while the beneficiary number has come down to 4.69 lakh during the disbursement of the sixth instalment. This happened only after the Government decided to merge the KALIA scheme with PM-Kisan in December last year.