Agriculture Minister Arun Sahoo on Thursday said that even though the State’s KALIA scheme would converge with the Centre’s PM-KISAN, it would still continue.
The State Government has already started disbursing the second instalment of KALIA assistance, Sahoo informed. Many beneficiaries have already received the assistance and more beneficiaries have been included under the scheme in this phase.
The State Government is discussing with the Centre for merger of KALIA with PM-KISAN Samman Nidhi, he revealed, adding that the State Agriculture Department is preparing a detailed plan for this purpose.
However, reacting to the proposed KALIA-PM-KISAN merger, Navnirman Krushak Sangathan (NKS) convenor Akshay Kumar said the State Government has cheated the farmers.
“Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has cheated 75 lakh farmers in the State. Farmers will lodge FIRs against the CM on December 16,” said Kumar.
Notably, the KALIA scheme was implemented by in December 2018. Under the scheme, small, marginal farmers and landless agricultural labourers get financial support of Rs 5,000 per crop.
On the other hand, in the PM-KISAN scheme, the Central Government provides income support of Rs 6,000 per year to all farmer families across the country in three equal instalments of Rs 2,000 each every four months.
In both schemes, the fund is directly transferred to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.