BJP National Vice President and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today demanded a white paper on the list of farmers benefited by the KALIA scheme launched by Odisha government to help the farmers. Mr Singh who is also the National Sadyasata Pravari said the state government should clarify as to how many farmers have received the money through Direct Benefit Transfer scheme.
The state government has announced to provide Rs 5,000 per crop per farmers family for five crops in a year. The BJP leader questioned if the State government has really provided money under the KALIA scheme to farmers, then why it is not providing the list of the beneficiaries to the central government for their inclusion under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme, Mr Chouhan said is either deliberately depriving farmers of the Central scheme apprehending that the Central government will take away all the credit or all its claims of providing money to farmers under KALIA scheme is false. He also said though the government claimed that it has so far covered 51 lakh farmers under the scheme it has not uploaded the list in the website.
The BJP leader who arrived here yesterday on a two day visit to the state to launch a membership drive to enroll 50 lakh people in the party held the BJD and the Congress government responsible for the backwardness and poverty of the state. He said though the state has enough water only 31 per cent of the land is covered under irrigation so far. The Odisha government must say why the water has not been used for irrigation and allowed to flow into the sea.
The former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister said the land under irrigation in Madhya Pradesh has increased from 7.5 lakh hectare to 43 lakh hectare while he was the Chief Minister. Chouhan slammed the Naveen Patnaik government for not implementing the Ayushman Bharat scheme. He said the toilets constructed in the state under the Swachha Bharat scheme does not match with the data provided by the state government.
When asked people are confused over the relations between the BJP and the BJD in the pre and post election scenario, Mr Chouhan said the BJP has a clear cut policy and it will fight the coming election alone and would form the next government in Odisha. He said though the Party failed to achieve its mission to win 120 Assembly seats in the last elections but its vote share has increased manifold. The Party has secured the second place and pushed the main opposition Congress to third position.
BJP, Mr.Chouhan said is trying to make its presence felt in each and every booth to come to power adding that only BJP could ensure development of the state.
Replying to a question, on the BJD’s support to the BJP in the triple talaq and scraping of article 370 ,he said BJP sought the support of the BJD for passing these two bills in Parliament and the BJD extended its support. He however, parried a question on the election of BJP candidate Aswini Vaishnav to Rajya Sabha with the support of BJD and denied any proposal of BJD joining the NDA.
