Bhubaneswar: The state leadership of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), Friday, said that the central scheme of PM Kisan Yojana and state scheme of KALIA cannot be merged together as the established guidelines do not support the same.
Odisha BJP Vice President Samir Mohanty, Friday briefed the media and said that the proposed plan of the state government to club the two goes against the norms. “The state government, before elections, kept on opposing the central scheme of PM Kisan Yojana. But now it plans to club the scheme with the state scheme. The established guidelines claim that the central and state scheme cannot be mixed. Norms do not support this. This was misleading on part of the government.”
The party also took a dig at the sudden love for the central scheme by the Naveen government. “Before elections the state government kept on opposing the PM Kisan Scheme and the Ayushman Bharat scheme and deprived the people in the state of the benefits of the central schemes. But six months post elections the state realized its mistake and wants to take advantage of the central schemes,” Mohanty said.
The senior BJP leader also said that while the PM Kisan Yojana was based on freely available classification of the beneficiaries, the state kept on hiding its list of beneficiaries. “Earlier large numbers of beneficiaries were announced under KALIA by the state government but later many fake beneficiaries came to the fore. When the Centre asked for the list of the same the state kept mum.”
Mohanty also cited the recent CAG report to claim that many central funds are lying in the state coffers which they have failed to utilize. “The recent CAG report hinted that while many central funds were available with the state, it failed to use it and rather borrowed money from the market at higher rates.”
The leader also questioned the cases of alleged fake beneficiaries of central schemes of providing pucca houses. The party alleged than in many cases it was not the poor and deserving candidates but people closer to the regional party which got assistance.
“The Fani assistance for pucca houses were given to many people closer to the BJD while many deserving poor are still without shelter and many schools are still operating under a tree,” he said.