Congress, BJP lock horns over Anna Bhagya scheme in Karnataka, govt seeking rice supply from other states

The Congress protested the BJP-led Centre’s decision to stop the sale of rice to states. At the same time, the BJP accused Congress of giving “false guarantees” and asked the state government to provide 15 kg of rice per person to BPL families to fulfil their pre-poll assurance.

The demonstrations came even as the Congress government continued talks with various state governments to arrange the 2.28 lakh metric tonne required a month to implement the scheme.

Following a protest at Freedom Park, former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai and BJP MLA R Ashok lashed out at the state government for making excuses to delay the implementation of Anna Bhagya by blaming the Central government.

“Today, they (Congress) leaders are protesting as a pretext to postpone the scheme’s launch. They think (that) if it is postponed by a day, crores can be saved. If it is postponed by a month, thousands of crores can be saved. And they use (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi’s name for delaying tactics,” Ashok said.

The BJP’s demand, he said, was for the state government to supply 15 kg of rice per person under the scheme. “Modi is already giving 5 kg rice to low-income families. Congress should give 10 kg rice so that each person gets 15 kg per month,” Bommai said.

He argued that the new schemes would burden state resources immensely, and the transport department, which is implementing the free travel scheme for women, would not even have money to buy diesel.

Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumr, who also took part in a state-wide protest staged by the Congress against the Union government, told reporters that Congress had assured only 10 kg of rice in its manifesto. “It was (Chief Minister) Siddaramaiah who launched the free 5 kg rice scheme for the poor (in 2013), which was increased to 7 kg later. They (BJP) reduced two kgs. Now, we have assured 10 kg of rice for the poor,” he said.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the government had reached out to West Bengal seeking rice supply, even as officials continued talks with Andhra Pradesh over the same. The decision to stop the sale of grains to the state government was ‘malicious’, he said. “Modi talks about cooperative federalism. Is this cooperative federalism?” he questioned.

On the BJP demanding 15 kg of rice by noting Modi was giving 5 kg, Siddaramaiah asked, “Who came up with the Food Security Act? It was the UPA government under Manmohan Singh. It was decided then (the Centre would give 5 kg rice). We have promised 10 kg rice. Five plus five,” he said.