Rs 782.26 crore distributed to 12.72 lakh ineligible beneficiaries under KALIA scheme in BJD's rule: CAG

Bhubaneswar: The previous BJD government in Odisha had released Rs 782.26 crore for distribution of financial assistance to 12.72 lakh "ineligible" beneficiaries under its Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme, a CAG report said.

In its report No 2 of the year 2024, the CAG said the scheme was launched in December 2018 to provide financial assistance to farmers, landless agriculture households and assistance to vulnerable agricultural households, life insurance support to cultivators and landless agricultural labourers, and interest-free crop loan.

In February 2019, a sixth component 'KALIA scholarship' was added to provide scholarship on merit basis to the children of beneficiaries under the scheme pursuing professional courses in the state.

During its launch, the government had promised Rs 5,000 per family per crop season for five crop seasons and Rs 12,500 to landless farm labourers in three years.

"Due to lack of preparedness in planning, the government did not ensure the feasibility of implementation of the scheme, for which, out of six components, only two components, 'support to cultivators for cultivation' and 'livelihood support for landless agricultural households', were implemented during 2018-21", it said.

The report said that two components of the scheme, financial assistance to vulnerable agricultural households and interest-free crop loan were dropped while remaining two other components (life insurance support to cultivators and landless agricultural labourers' and KALIA scholarship) are under planning stage even after more than two years from the commencement of the scheme.

The Department of Agriculture and Farmers' Empowerment 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.

The auditor found that around 9.76 lakh were identified "ineligible during one stage of implementation while another 2.96 lakh were found ineligible in a later stage, 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 CAG report said.

The CAG report also said "payment of Rs 107.64 crore was released to 1.28 lakh account holders in which the names were different from that of the beneficiaries, indicating payment to unauthorised persons." There was hasty development of the IT system for KALIA without proper system study and requirement assessment for which deficiencies in implementation occurred, noticed the auditor.

It has recommended the state government for developing a robust mechanism to identify eligible farmers after proper identification, ensure development of IT applications based on approved user requirements and system requirement specifications.

The CAG report has recommended to the Odisha government to take necessary steps for prompt recovery of payments from ineligible beneficiaries under the KALIA scheme who have been paid assistance incorrectly.