Agri Minister misleading on KALIA Yojana list: Congress

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha unit of Congress on Monday demanded the resignation of Agriculture Minister Arun Sahoo for misleading the House of the state Assembly over the KALIA Yojana beneficiary list.

Congress alleged that the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) led state government is using KALIA Yojana for political mileage and misleading the people by presenting wrong facts in the Assembly.

Party Spokesperson Satya Prakash Nayak said the Naveen Patnaik government has disbursed crores of rupees to ineligible beneficiaries before the elections 2019.

Alleging that Agriculture Minister Arun Sahoo has shared wrong information in Assembly and thereby violating the dignity of the House, Nayak urged the Chief Minister to take action against the Minister.

He said as per information obtained through RTI, there are 1,72,908 ineligible KALIA beneficiaries in 10 districts of the state while the Minister informed that there are only 45,965 ineligible beneficiaries in 30 districts of the state.

Giving details about the ineligible KALIA Yojana beneficiaries, Nayak said that there are 15,255 ineligible beneficiaries in Koraput district, 18,552 in Khordha, 19,980 in Ganjam, 14,017 in Mayurbhanj, 37,759 in Sonepur, 20,010 in Cuttack, 9,852 in Malkangiri, 11,542 in Sundargarh, 10,050 in Sambalpur and 15,891 in Jagatsinghpur.