Ruling BJD misled house on KALIA beneficiary list: Congress

Bhubaneswar: Launching a scathing attack on ruling BJD, Odisha Congress today alleged that the ruling party is using KALIA  scheme for political mileage and misleading the people of Odisha by presenting wrong facts on its beneficiaries in the Assembly.

At a press conference held at Congress Bhawan here today, party Spokesperson Satya Prakash Nayak slammed Agriculture Minister Arun Sahoo for sharing wrong facts in Assembly and thereby violating the dignity of the House. Seeking intervention, Nayak urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to take action against the Minister.

“The Minister tried to hide the genuine number of beneficiaries while replying to a question raised by MLA Aswini Kumar Patra. As per information obtained through RTI, there are 1,72,908 ineligible KALIA beneficiaries in 10 districts of the state. But the Minister stated that there are only 45,965 ineligible beneficiaries,” ,” Nayak said.

Quoting RTI, Nayak further detailed that there are 15,255 ineligible beneficiaries in Koraput district, 18,552 in Khordha, 19,980 in Ganjam, 14,017 in Mayurbhanj, 37,759 in Sonepur, 20,010 in Cuttack , 9,852 in Malkangiri, 11,542 in Sundargarh, 10,050 in Sambalpur and 15,891 in Jagatsinghpur. “Congress will bring a complete data of ineligible beneficiaries in all 30 districts in coming days,” he added.

In response, the Agriculture Minister Sahoo said, “I do not have  any such data what the Congress is talking about. I will comment on the matter once i receive it.”