When there is race among states to give Farm Loan waiver,Odisha government launches bouquet of Welfare schemes to keep Farmers Vote intact. In a bid to provide financial, livelihood, cultivation support along with insurances to the farmers of the state, Odisha Cabinet on Friday approved the Krushak Assistant for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) Scheme to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore.
All small and marginal farmers of the state will be covered under this scheme. According to official sources, an amount of Rs 10,000 per family at the rate of Rs 5,000 each for Kharif and Rabi seasons shall be provided as financial assistance for taking up cultivation. This assistance is for five cropping seasons spanning three years from 2018-19 to 2021-22.
The KALIA scheme got the nod of the state Cabinet which met at the State Secretariat friday evening in the presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Addressing media soon after Cabinet meeting and decision, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said, “The sharpest decline in poverty levels in the country has happened in Odisha. Nearly eight million people have been lifted out of poverty. Around 60% of our population is dependent on agriculture. With our intervention, from a rice deficit state we have become the third largest contributor to the PDS. Bagging a record 5 Krishi Karman Awards, we are the only state in the country to have doubled farmers’ income. In 2014 we promised additional 10 lakh hectares of irrigation and we are almost there. The target will be met by March 2019.”
“There are 32 lakh farmers’ family in the state of which 20 lakh avail crop loan. Of these, about 60 per cent families repay the loan in time. Had the government waived the farm loan, only 8 lakh families would have been benefited while the sharecroppers and tenant farmers would have been deprived of the benefit,” the Chief Minister told mediapersons
Furthermore, as many as 10 lakh landless households will be supported with a unit cost of Rs 12,500 to take up activities like small goat rearing, duckery units, fishery kits, mushroom cultivation and bee keeping.
This apart, an annual financial assistance of Rs 10,000 per household will be provided to take care of sustenance of those farmers who may not be able to take up cultivation or avail livelihood options due to old-age, disability, disease or other reasons.
Importantly, life insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh and additional personal accident cover of Rs 2 lakh will be provided to both cultivators and landless agricultural labourers covering about 57 lakh households.
Crop loans up to Rs 50,000 will henceforth be interest free. Under KALIA, an amount of Rs 10,180 crore will be spent over a period of three years till 2020-21. The scheme will be reviewed in 2020-21 for further modifications.
“The demand for the waiver of farm loan made by the Congress and BJP would make Odisha bankrupt and push the state to the precarious situation it had experienced in the 90s. But the state cabinet today has announced such a package for the farmers which will make the loanee farmers and all category farmers financially self-sufficient,” he pointed out
Notably Naveen has played a Gamble by not waiving Farm Loan,However this welfare scheme will have reach to Wider number of people (32 Lakhs) including landless farmers associated with Farming,while in case farm loan waiver only 8 lakhs farmers would have benefitted.
Only time will say Naveen Pattnaik Government is going to get Benefit with this welfare schemes in upcoming 2019 General Election
