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Karnataka: CM begins cash transfers to beneficiaries of rice scheme
According to food and civil supplies minister KH Muniyappa, the Congress government will transfer ₹34 per kg of rice, which amounts to ₹ 170 per month per person in place of rice. The rest of the five kg which comes from the Centre will be provided as usual.
Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah released the direct benefit transfers (DBTs) to beneficiaries as part of the ‘Anna Bhagya’ scheme, which was originally designed to provide 10 kg of free rice to Below Poverty Line (BPL) households, at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru on Monday.
The launch, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the scheme initiated by Siddaramaiah during his previous tenure in 2013, comes after the Centre discontinued the sale of rice and wheat to state governments in June.
Subsequently, the Congress government announced that it would offer monetary compensation instead of rice to BPL and Antyodaya cardholders in the state.
According to food and civil supplies minister KH Muniyappa, the government will transfer ₹34 per kg of rice, which amounts to ₹ 170 per month per person in place of rice. The rest of the five kg which comes from the Centre will be provided as usual.
Launching the scheme, Siddaramaiah hit out at the BJP-led central government for indulging in “dirty politics” by stopping the supply of rice to the state after the announcement of the guarantee. “The BJP government at the Center is doing anti-poor dirty politics by stopping the supply of rice to the state immediately after the announcement of the Anna Bhagya scheme.”
“After the Centre stopped giving rice to the people of Karnataka, it started e-auction of rice. But now, no one is coming forward to buy rice through e-auction. Should we call it dirty politics or not? Should it not be called politics of hatred against the people of Karnataka?” Siddaramaiah said.
The CM said that ₹170 would be directly transferred to the accounts of the 44.2 million beneficiaries, calling upon the poor to spend the money on food and live a comfortable life.
At the event on Monday, deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar released the logo for the Anna bhagya scheme, and food and civil supplies minister KH Muniyappa released the information letter regarding the guarantee.
“Today, the message is being sent not only to the state of Karnataka but to the entire country through the Anna Bhagya scheme,” Shivakumar said, pointing out that discussions are going on all over the country about the scheme.
Stressing that it was the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which introduced the Food Security Act, Shivakumar said, “It should be remembered that the UPA government enacted the Food Security Act intending to make the country hunger-free and made it a constitutional right to provide food grains to the poor.”
“Now, we have implemented the scheme as promised. The government has decided to give money to the people for an additional five kg of rice till they give 10 kg of rice. Today, we are giving money to the beneficiaries. Every day, money will be credited to the accounts of the beneficiaries of four to five districts,” Shivakumar added.
According to the state government, the Anna Bhagya scheme will be rolled out phase-wise. The government has said it would complete the process of the direct money transfer before July 31.
1.28 crore ration card-holding families will benefit from the scheme. Out of which, 99% of people have linked their ration card with their Aadhaar, while 82% have linked their Aadhaar with active bank accounts. 94% of the cards have women as the head of the family, and the rest are men.
Meanwhile, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh asserted that the Congress government in Karnataka will not be shaken in its resolve to implement its guarantee.
“The cash transfer scheme launched today by the Congress Government in Karnataka is a befitting reply to the Modi Government’s vindictive policies regarding food security for the poor, especially in a state where the BJP was comprehensively rejected,” Ramesh said.
“These policies do not make for cooperative federalism that the PM likes to boast about. Instead, they reflect confrontational federalism at its petty worst,” he added.
Ramesh’s remarks came on a day when reports emerged that the e-auction of rice by FCI, in which state governments were barred from participating, attracted buyers for only 170 tonnes out of 386,000 tonnes of rice on offer.
Meanwhile, the former chief minister Basvaraj Bommai slammed the Congress for accusing the Centre of withholding rice and said that the FCI has no authority to give rice to any state. “You (Congress) should have talked to the central government. Did the central government say that they would give you rice? Did you discussed this with the Centre?”
“Due to monsoon, there was unavailability of rice, so the central government did not provide it. The Punjab government was ready to provide rice, and so were Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh governments. Telangana government was ready to give paddy. You don’t have the willpower to give rice to people,” Bommai said.
