Bhubaneswar: The chairperson of Odisha State Food Commissioin, Ranglal Jamuda, has hailed the state government’s innovative fiscal assistance scheme for farmers, Kalia. The chief of Food Commission has described the scheme “excellent”.

” Conceptually this is an excellent scheme to implement in a State like Odisha which is visited by so many calamities like TITILI, PETHAI etc.,” tweeted Jamuda. Stating, “Real tillers actually don’t own much land the land owners rarely engage in farming”, he has said, “Whenever crop is damaged due to natural/unnatural calamities,it is the tiller(who does not own land) who suffers the most”. But unfortunately, the laws of the land don’t support such people in distress, he lamented wondering, “How can they survive, let alone prosper ?”

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik has described the scheme as “historic”. In a tweet, Patnaik has said, ” Happy to launch historic ₹10,000 crore “Krushak Assistance for Liveli hood and Income Augmentation”- KALIA to further accelerate agricultural prosperity in #Odisha. It will cover over 30 lakh small and marginal farmers, benefiting 92% of the cultivators.”

“Progressive #KALIA scheme has five interventions including support to cultivators, livelihood support for landless, financial assistance to vulnerable agriculture households and landless labourers, life insurance cover, interest free crop loan up to ₹50,000s.”, tweeted Patnaik immediately after the scheme was approved by the state cabinet chaired by him.