Odisha to weed out fake KALIA beneficiaries

Bhubaneswar: Taking cognizance of allegations regarding inclusion of ineligible beneficiaries under its flagship KALIA scheme, the state Government has decided to remove the fake ones.

Speaking to mediamen here, Agriculture Secretary Sourav Garg today said, “names of total 51 lakh KALIA beneficiaries have so far been uploaded on the Government website, of which 37 lakh are small and marginal farmers while rest 14 lakh are landless farmers.”

The beneficiaries’ list has been put up on the wall of every Gram Panchayat office with an aim to wipe out the ineligible beneficiaries, he added.

The Agriculture Secretary further said that around one lakh fresh applications have been received recently. To identify genuine beneficiaries of the farmers’ welfare scheme, committees have been formed at Gram Panchayat, block and district levels.

“Ineligible people can now submit applications for exclusion of their name from the list. Other people can also provide information on such fake beneficiaries.The final list of genuine beneficiaries will be out after proper verification and scrutiny,” Garg said.