Bhubaneswar, Sept. 17 -- Odisha government on Tuesday admitted that it distributed an assistance of about Rs 170.50 crore to 3.41 lakh ineligible beneficiaries under the KALIA (Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation) scheme.
Surprisingly, 20,000 government employees and pensioners availed financial assistance under the KALIA scheme. Agriculture Minsiter Arun Sahoo informed that financial assistance was provided to nearly 51,05,290 beneficiaries including 36, 34,710 (small and marginal farmers and share croppers) and 14,70,580 landless and agriculture households.
The State government while verifying applications through gram panchayat nodal officers found that 12,000 large farmers, 9,000 minors and 20,000 government empl...