**Bhubaneswar:** Under Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA), the first draft beneficiary list (DBL) 22.8 lakhs of small and marginal farmers was displayed in early January for ground-level verification. A total of 13.03 lakh small and marginal farmers, including 57,614 sharecroppers were found to be eligible based on the information available.
The first tranche of Rs 5,000 has been transferred to their bank accounts through direct benefit transfer (DBT) as Rabi assistance for agricultural activities. The rest about 9 lakhs small and marginal farmers’ list has been published as a part of the second beneficiary list under the incomplete information category in all the Gram Panchayats, apart from the list of about 65 lakh persons who have applied for assistance under the Kalia scheme by filling up the green forms.
Before transfer of the first phase assistance Re 1 had been transferred to 7.04 lakhs beneficiaries as a test check for confirmation of their accounts and to verify the robustness of the electronic DBT system to handle such large numbers of transfer of funds.
Due to this testing a number of issues could be resolved and assisted in ensuring that when the 13.03 lakhs beneficiaries under the KALIA Scheme were transferred Rs. 5,000, the failure rate was less than 2 percent. The department is further working with the banks to improve the reliability of the funds transfer.
Today a State-Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) meeting was held under the chairmanship of the Development Commissioner in order to ensure that the funds provided under the KALIA Scheme are not adjusted by the banks towards previous outstanding against any beneficiary.
The bankers accepted the request of the State Government to render their full cooperation in successful implementation of KALIA Scheme and not to make any such unilateral adjustments.
Similar meetings were also conducted by all the 30 Collectors who held the district-level bankers committee meeting in which the bankers assured their cooperation in disbursement of fund to the beneficiaries under KALIA Scheme without any adjustment. Regarding alleged errors in the beneficiaries list and inclusion of prominent persons, the State Government has already initiated steps to provide a method for refund of the money transferred to the ineligible beneficiaries.
The exemplary action taken by the farmers in voluntarily submitting red forms for exclusion of their names from the first draft list is appreciated and it is hoped that similar support would continue to ensure that the all the correct beneficiaries get the assistance under KALIA scheme.
