The civil supplies minister D Sridhar Babu on Wednesday asked the Centre not to immediately implement the direct cash transfer scheme for food security. The request was made after it stirred a lot of uproar by the public on Aadhaar-domestic gas link.
Earlier, the state had urged the Centre to defer the decision to transfer subsidy amount on gas refills into the bank accounts of consumers by at least two months.
However, an official decision on postponing linking Aadhaar card to delivery of domestic gas refill has not been taken yet. Some of the Union ministers from the state announced that the Aadhaar-gas link would be postponed for two months. But an official announcement is still due.
Civil supplies minister D Sridhar Babu, who was in Delhi on Wednesday, was earlier scheduled to meet petroleum and natural gas minister M Veerappa Moily to discuss on Aadhaar-gas linking, but the meeting couldn’t be held as Moily was out of Delhi. As a result it would take a few more days to announce the decision officially.
Meanwhile, Sridhar Babu attended a meeting in Delhi on National Food Security. The minister urged the Centre to treat all the states equally while providing food security, otherwise it would burden some states.
He suggested some changes in the proposed Food Security Bill that would benefit the state, besides requesting the Centre not to implement cash transfer scheme in food security immediately.
The minister wanted the Centre to construct more warehouses as the government introduced ‘Mana Biyyam’ scheme and procuring rice for PDS.