BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday released financial assistance of over Rs 1,293 crore under the Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme for all the farmers in the state.
While Rs 933.06 crore was disbursed to over 46 lakh small, marginal and landless farmers, Rs 2,000 each was provided to about 18 lakh landless farmers as an additional incentive. The financial burden will be around Rs 360 crore for the additional incentive.
Financial assistance to farmers has come a week after the cabinet allowed a proposal of the state government to make payment anytime of the year instead of the stipulated two crop seasons, kharif and rabi. The chief minister announced during the occasion that the tenure of the KALIA scheme has been extended by three more years till 2026-27 for which the state government will spend Rs 6,030 crore.
The chief minister also inaugurated KALIA centres in all the 30 districts to provide technical knowhows to the farmers for their agricultural work. He said that the rules for KALIA scholarship for children of farmers will be changed to include those studying in top educational institutions like NIT, IIT, IIM, AIIMS, ICAR and other private vocational and professional educational institutions of the state and outside.
Addressing the farmers, 5T chairman VK Pandian said 64 lakh farmers have benefitted from the scheme launched by the chief minister in 2019. He said that the state government has disbursed Rs 13,793 crore to the farmers during the last five years. Meanwhile, the government has announced a hike in the meeting fees of panchayat-level and block-level federation members of Mission Shakti programme by Rs 500. The increase in the payment will be applicable retrospectively from October, 2023.
Around 1,26,010 such members of the Mission Shakti will benefit from the decision for which, the state government will bear annual expenditure of Rs 249.21 crore. There are 676 block-level federation presidents and secretaries in the state, while the number of other members is 3,042. There are 13,588 presidents and secretaries in gram panchayat federations while the number of other members is 1,08,704.