Rs 782.26 crore transferred to 12.72 lakh ineligible KALIA beneficiaries in Odisha: CAG report

A whopping Rs 782.26 crore has been transferred to 12.72 lakh ineligible Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) beneficiaries in Odisha, revealed Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on Wednesday. 

As per the CAG report, which was tabled by Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Majhi in the Assembly today, "Audit also analysed the KALIA database, with reference to other databases like SECC, VAHAN, IFMS and HRMS and identified another 2.96 lakh ineligible beneficiaries, bringing the total number of identified ineligible beneficiaries to 12.72 lakh. Against these 12.72 lakh ineligible beneficiaries, the Department had transferred Rs 782.26 crore, with remote chances of recovery."

"The Department had provided KALIA benefit assistance to 65.64 lakh beneficiaries during 2019-21 and released instalments thrice to 41.64 lakh beneficiaries, twice to 8.09 lakh beneficiaries and only once to 15.91 lakh beneficiaries. This happened due to the identification of 9.76 lakh ineligible beneficiaries while implementing the scheme," the report read.

"Due to lack of preparedness in planning, the Department did not ensure the feasibility of implementation of the Scheme owing to which out of six components under the KALIA scheme, only two components i.e, ‘Support to cultivators for cultivation’ and ‘Livelihood support for landless agricultural households’, were implemented during 2018-21. Further, only three out of five instalments were released to beneficiaries under the first component as of March 2021," the report read.

"The two components of the scheme i.e, ‘Financial assistance to vulnerable agricultural households’ and ‘Interest-free crop loan’ were dropped and the remaining two components i.e. ‘Life insurance support to cultivators and landless agricultural labourers’ and ‘KALIA Scholarship’ are still under planning stage even after more than two years of commencement of the scheme. There was also delay in disbursement of assistance to farmers," the report stated.

According to the report, a payment of Rs 107.64 crore was released to 1.28 lakh account holders in which the names of account holders were different from the names of the beneficiaries indicating payment to unauthorised persons.

There was a release of all three instalments to 14.04 lakh Landless Agricultural Labourers without imparting necessary training and capacity building, which defeated the scheme objectives, the CAG report revealed.