BHUBANESWAR: After mounting pressure to implement Ayushman Bharat, the Centre on Friday urged Odisha Government to send the list of beneficiaries to be included under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PM Kisan).
During a video-conference with Agriculture Secretaries of different States, Union Secretary of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Sanjay Agarwal asked his Odisha counterpart to provide the list of 46 lakh beneficiaries by July 31.
Even as the PM Kisan scheme was launched on February 24, the State Government has so far sent a list of 9,73,984 farmers to the Centre. Of them, 9,36,139 have received the first instalment of PM Kisan aid.
Agriculture Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo said the Centre, as per the 2011 census, has asked to send a list of 46 lakh small and marginal farmers by end of July. But, it has not sought the list of big farmers as decided in their last Cabinet meeting. The Government is working on it, he said.
Opposition leaders, however, targeted the BJD Government for dilly-dallying to implement the PM Kisan scheme. When the State claims to have provided assistance to 50 lakh farmers under its Kalia scheme, what is holding it back to send the same beneficiary list to the Centre, they wondered.
While a farm household is entitled to get `10,000 per year for two crops (Kharif and Rabi) under the Kalia scheme, a beneficiary will get `6,000 in three instalments a year under the PM Kisan scheme.
Meanwhile, the Odisha Government has decided to spend an additional `3,234 crore in order to provide financial assistance to more farmers under its flagship Kalia scheme during 2019-20.
According to a notification issued by the Agriculture and Farmers Empowerment Department, the State Government has decided to include 32.34 lakh additional beneficiaries, including 24.84 lakh landless share croppers in the scheme.
Total 75 lakh farm families will be included in the KALIA scheme to ensure that no one, who is eligible to avail benefits under the scheme, is left out. Of the total beneficiaries, 50 lakh are small and marginal farmers and 25 lakh are landless agricultural households, the notification stated.
Earlier, the State Government had made a budgetary provision of `10,000 crore for the Kalia scheme. Now after inclusion of more farmers, the total funds requirement would be around `13,234 crore for the current fiscal.
