KALIA Yojana-PM-KISAN merger; know details

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has decided to merge KALIA Yojana with PM-KISAN Yojana.

The State Cabinet held on 15th November 2019 approved the proposal for modification of Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme.

With KALIA Yojana gaining wide adaptability day by day among the farming community, the government has decided to extend the scheme till PM-KISAN continues.

The state had launched the KALIA Yojana in December 2018. Similarly, a Central Sector Scheme namely, “Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)” was launched during February 2019, wherein income support as assistance is provided to all eligible landholding farmers’ families in the country.

The operational guidelines of both the schemes were examined and it was decided that all the eligible farmers shall get assistance from PM-KISAN during 2019-20.

Details on KALIA Yojana-PM-KISAN Yojana

• The beneficiaries who have not yet received financial assistance during 2018-19 under KALIA scheme, will also be provided assistance for Rabi 2018-19.

• As all the eligible farmers shall get assistance from PM-KISAN from 2019-20, no assistance for Rabi 2019 will be given under the KALIA scheme to these farmers.

• Keeping parity of both the schemes, the small farmers/ marginal farmers may be given with Rs. 5,000 for 2019-20 and Rs 4,000 per year from 2020-21, so that they will get Rs 10,000 annually i.e. Rs. 6,000 from PM-KISAN and Rs. 4000 from KALIA.

• Applications from big/large farmers shall be collected online as the big/large farmers are eligible to get assistance from the PM-KISAN scheme i.e. Rs. 6,000 annually.

• The actual cultivators (sharecroppers) who are landless, if any, will continue to get assistance from the KALIA scheme i.e. Rs. 10,000 annually, since they are not considered under PM-Kisan.

• Former and present holders of constitutional posts and former and present Ministers/ State Ministers and former/present Members of Lok Sabha/ Rajya Sabha/ State Legislative Assemblies/ State Legislative Councils, former and present Mayors of Municipal Corporations, former and present Chairpersons of District Panchayats shall be excluded from Kalia Yojana

• Besides, professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, and Architects registered with Professional bodies and carrying out profession by undertaking practices shall also be excluded from the KALIA scheme as per the PM-KISAN scheme so that PM-KISAN and KALIA scheme will have common exclusion.

• The farmers coming under Urban Local Bodies shall not be considered for both the schemes.

• As the Cooperation Department has decided to provide interest-free crop loan up to Rs. 1.00 lakh to all farmers, so the component i.e. “Interest-free crop loans” under KALIA which had a provision to provide interest-free crop loan up to Rs. 0.50 lakh to all farmers has been subsumed and need not be further considered under KALIA.

• Since the number of beneficiaries under KALIA has been increased so that no one will be left out, the component “Financial Assistance to Vulnerable Agricultural Households” is dropped from KALIA.

Under KALIA Yojana-PM-KISAN, the additional funds required for 2019-20 and 2020-21 is Rs 4587.584 crore and Rs 3404.0224 crore respectively excluding the funds required for other components of KALIA Yojana and administrative cost.