BJD welcomes Centre's decision to extend PM-KISAN benefits to all farmers' families

Leaders of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Saturday welcomed the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government's decision of extending the benefits of PM-KISAN Yojana to all 14.5 crore farmers in the country.

Amar Satpathy, former Agricultural Minister and BJD MLA, said: "Odisha has adopted policies to empower farmers and to increase their income. But there are many schemes operational in Odisha. The central government is following the footprint of Odisha. It is a good thing but all farmers should get benefits."

On Friday, the Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister approved all land holding eligible farmer families to avail the benefits under PM-KISAN which is income support of Rs 6,000 in three installments.

Earlier, the small and marginal landholder farmer families with cultivable land holding was up to 2 hectares could avail the benefits. The revised scheme is expected to cover around 2 crore more farmers, increasing the coverage of PM-KISAN to around 14.5 crore beneficiaries.

BJD MLA Soumya Ranjan Patnaik said, "We should welcome if any decision is taken in the farmers' interest. Naveen babu is making efforts for the welfare of farmers. Before elections, we offered benefits to farmers under KALIA scheme. Forgiving loans is not a solution as it will increase the problems of banks."

Before simultaneous Assembly and Lok Sabha polls, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced KALIA scheme which aims to provide annual financial assistance of Rs 10,000 per household for the sustenance of those farmers.

However, a BJD MLA also criticised the BJP government for not implementing the Swaminathan report on the solutions to the problems faced by farmers.

"Farmers are being deceived from 2014 by BJP. They have not implemented Swaminathan report. Under KALIA, our Odisha government is providing assistance to farmers giving Rs 5,000 to farmers in three installments. They are only 6,000 in three installments of Rs 2,000," said BJD MLA Rohit Pujhari.

The Odisha government has also decided to increase the number of beneficiaries under its "KALIA" scheme to 75 lakh farmer families as against 42 lakh at present.