Odisha state Cabinet on Friday approved Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme, amounting to over Rs 10,000 crore covering 92 per cent of cultivators.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said: "This scheme covers 92 per cent of cultivators; those who have taken farm loans, non-loanee farmers, sharecroppers, and landless agriculture labourers."
Hitting out at the Congress party for waiving off loans of farmers, Patnaik claimed that this had been done in the past and led to a massive crunch in the state economy as the people were not able to get salaries in time.
Speaking about the loan waivers' impact, he said: "I am sure most of you remember how the treasuries were bankrupt, how salaries could not be paid, how infrastructure suffered. The Kalia scheme is progressive including the employment and self-employment potential for the poorest of the poor."
On December 18, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had vociferously said that he won't let Prime Minister Narendra Modi sleep until the farmers' loans are waived off.
"We will not let Prime Minister Modi sleep till he waives off loans of farmers. All opposition parties will unitedly demand this. Till now, PM has not waived off a single rupee of farmers," Rahul had said while stepping up his attack on Prime Minister Modi.
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