Bhubaneswar: After much dilly-dallying, the state government has finally submitted a list of eligible farmers to the Centre for inclusion under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme.
On the last day (July 15), the state government has submitted the list of about 30 lakh farmers to the Union government for covering them under the PM-KISAN scheme, said agriculture secretary Saurabh Garg. Earlier, the state had provided a list of nearly 18 lakh farmers.
“We have uploaded the list of farmers on the website concerned to cover them under the PM-KISAN scheme. We have selected the farmers from our database made for KALIA scheme. Some of them have been listed out as they are ineligible as per the guidelines of the Centre,” Garg told Orissa POST.
In a letter recently, the Centre had asked the state government to provide the beneficiary list by July 15 or else the farmers would be deprived of the benefits of the scheme.
Earlier, the state government had patted its own back by claiming to have included 50 lakh farmers under its KALIA scheme. However, the ground reality seems to be totally different.
As per reports, there was a target to include over 46 lakh farmers from Odisha under the Centre’s PM-KISAN scheme. As many as 9,62,115 farmers in Odisha received assistance in first phase while the benefits of PM-KISAN were extended to 7,99,293 farmers in the second instalment.