Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Saturday announced a 25 per cent bonus for 7.89 lakh registered leaf pluckers, taking note of their financial plight during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The government also raised the price of each kendu leaf bundle by 20 per cent, from Re 1 to Re 1.20 with additional 5 per cent wage as an incentive to each registered kendu leaf binder as well as 17,444 unorganised kendu leaf pluckers.
Further, the state government decided to provide Rs 200 to each plucker to purchase water bottles.
The financial assistance provided by the government will be credited to the bank account of the kendu leaf pluckers through the direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme.
