Only 32K KALIA Beneficiaries Ineligible: BJD

Bhubaneswar: The ruling BJD on Wednesday said that only 32,000 ineligible beneficiaries had availed benefits under KALIA (Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation) scheme.

The clarification came a day after Agriculture Minister Arun Kumar Sahu had issued a statement to the media about 3.41 lakh fake beneficiaries.

Briefing mediapersons here, Rajya Sabha member and BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb said the media had misinterpreted the statement of the Agriculture Minister.

“It is true that about 20,000 government employees and pension holders and about 12,000 large farmers, who have received the KALIA assistance, are ineligible. With regard to the three lakh beneficiaries belonging to the same family, they cannot be ticked off as ineligible. They will not be provided with the financial assistance in the next phase and the money they have received earlier will be adjusted accordingly,” he added.

The Agriculture Minister had said that of the 51,05,290 KALIA beneficiaries registered till May 29 this year, 3.41 lakh were found to be ineligible.

Talking to the media on reaching New Delhi this afternoon, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that efforts are on to retrieve the money from the ineligible beneficiaries.