Devbrat Patnaik

Bhubaneswar: While Odisha government has expedited the process of verification and scrutiny of beneficiaries under the Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme, State agriculture minister Arun Sahoo today said that as many as 2.66 lakh ineligible beneficiaries have been identified so far.

While around 51 lakh farmers received financial assistance under the KALIA scheme, verification of 36.88 lakh farmers has already been completed, sources said.

Following a review meeting today, the minister mentioned, " A total of 2.66 lakh ineligible KALIA Scheme beneficiaries have been identified. Identification of such beneficiaries at panchayat level will be completed by August 27 while the same at block and district levels would be finished by August 31.

Once the process of verification at panchayat, block and district levels is over, ineligible beneficiaries will not receive any further direct cash transfers under the KALIA scheme.

On the other hand, speaking about the KALIA scholarship, the minister informed that 7258 applicants out of the 19247 students who had applied for the scholarship, will get the scholarship for undertaking several professional courses in government-run colleges across Odisha.

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