Free rice scheme in Karnataka: Congress, BJP trade charges

The Congress on Thursday accused the Narendra Modi government of being “petty and partisan” and stopping the Food Corporation of India from selling rice to the Karnataka government for its free rice distribution scheme, drawing sharp reactions from the BJP.

The BJP alleged that the Congress was “engaging in theatrics” as it realised fulfilling the promise made to the people of Karnataka in the run-up to the recent assembly polls was beyond its means.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the Congress government in Karnataka was more than willing to buy rice at Rs 34 per kg from FCI to implement its Anna Bhagya 2.0 scheme.

“But the Modi government brazenly stopped FCI from selling it even as it has allowed FCI to supply rice at Rs 20 per kg for ethanol production! Now, in keeping with the guarantee made to the people of Karnataka the state govt will transfer up to Rs 750 per month to households, until enough stock of rice is procured to implement 10kg free rice for all BPL families,” he said on Twitter.

“We have said it before and we will say it again, theres never been a more petty and partisan government in Delhi than the Modi government. But that wont stop us from fulfilling our promise to the people of Karnataka,” Ramesh said, sharing a report that after being denied grain by the Centre, the Karnataka government to compensate BPL families with cash.

Hitting back, BJPs IT cell head Amit Malviya took to Twitter to say that the Congress should stop blaming the Centre for not being able to fulfil the promise of providing 10kg free rice to the people of Karnataka under the Anna Bhagya Yojana.

“They made the promise during election, they should find the means to fulfil it,” he said.

The Centre is already providing free food grains to 80 crore Indians, including Kannadigas, under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, the BJP leader noted.

“After their poll calculation misfired, Congress is now promising up to 750 rupees per month instead of rice. Is it going to be per household? Is there an eligibility criteria? And where is the money? Also what happened to the promise of 2,000 rupees to every woman and unemployment allowance of (Rs) 3,000 for every Youth? “It is obvious that the Congress bit off more than it could chew and is now engaging in theatrics. Truth is: Congress lied to the people of Karnataka, the poor in particular, and is now making more false promises to cover up their misadventures,” Malviya said.

The Anna Bhagya scheme, one of the five pre-poll guarantees of the Congress, promises 10 kg rice for every BPL (below poverty line) family in the state.

A recent order issued by the FCI said, “The sale of wheat and rice under the open market sale scheme (domestic) for state governments is discontinued.” The Congress has been claiming that this step of the central government will hurt the most marginalised sections of society.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)