Congress members on Wednesday expressed concern over an answer given by Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo in the State Assembly to a question on the number of people dependent on agriculture in 2010 and decline in the number in 2019.
While Tara Prasad Bahinipati (Congress) had put the question, the Minister, in his reply, said there were 57 lakh people dependent on agriculture in the State as per the 2011 Census and the exact number of people depending on firming can be assessed only after 2021 Census. The people dependent on agriculture comprised 32.80 lakh farmers and 24.20 farm labourers, he informed.
The Minister too informed that the allegation of peasant families quitting firming due to the Government’s Agriculture Policy is not true at all.
However, Bahinipati and two other Congress members Narasingha Mishra and Santosh Singh Saluja insisted that the Minister inform the House if there was any decline in the farmer population in 2019 compared to 2010.
“The State Government has introduced KALIA Yojana and is claiming to have provided monetary assistance to small and marginal famers, sharecroppers and farm laourers with certain figures. How the Government is making these claims when it has no exact figures of farmers of different categories,” Mishra wanted to know and sought a clarification from the Minister.
To this, Sahoo said that while KALIA assistance has been given to about 50 lakh farmers against the Government’s target of 75 lakh beneficiaries, fresh applications are still being received. After receipt of applications, the number of famers of difference categories can be calculated, he said.
Among others, Ashwini Patra (BJD), Bhaskar Madhei (BJP) and Prafulla Samal (BJD), Debi Prasad Mishra (BJD) and Suresh Kumar Raoutray (Cong) put additional questions and got answers from the Minister.