Odisha CM announces Rs 56 cr financial aid to tendu leaf beneficiaries

Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India]: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has announced additional financial assistance of Rs 56 crores in the third phase of the 2022 crop year for the tendu leaf pluckers and binders in the state.

More than 8 lakh beneficiaries engaged in tendu leaf plucking and binding will be benefited from this financial assistance. This bonus and incentive amount will be available to tendu leaf beneficiaries in July 2023.

For the 2022 crop year, in the third phase, a 25 per cent bonus will be given to 7.75 lakh tendu leaf pluckers and a 5 per cent incentive amount to 40,000 tendu leaf binders and temporary workers. Thus, a total amount of Rs 56.23 crore will be given to the tendu leaf workers.

For the 2022 crop year, in the first phase, Rs 1,000 was given to each tendu leaf plucker, and Rs 1500 was given to each tendu leaf binder and temporary workers, thus Rs 83.34 crore of financial assistance was provided.

Similarly, in the second phase of the year 2022, Rs 1,360 were given to 7 lakh 75 thousand Tendu leaf pluckers of the state. During this phase, 40,000 tendu leaf binders and temporary workers, were given an amount of Rs 1,500 each, thus a total of Rs 111.21 crores were provided.

The total amount of assistance given to the beneficiaries for the year 2022 including bonus, incentive amount and financial assistance will be Rs 250.78 crores. That is an all-time record in a single crop year.

For the year 2021-2022, tendu leaf pluckers were 118. 83 crore bonus and assistance were provided. For the crop year 2022, 11 per cent more assistance amount is being given to the beneficiaries than in 2021.

The beneficiaries mainly belong to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes communities. This financial assistance will be very helpful in improving their standard of living.
Tendu leaves are widely used in making bidis.