BENGALURU: Food and Civil Supplies Minister KH Muniyappa said on Thursday that the state government may not be able to implement Anna Bhagya scheme on July 1. “But we will implement the scheme before August 1,” he told reporters here.
Muniyappa, who was in New Delhi with CM Siddaramaiah on Wednesday to explore possibilities of getting rice from central agencies, said, “We have found a new way to procure rice as the Centre has let us down. Punjab and Chhattisgarh have agreed to help us.”
Expressing his helplessness, Muniyappa alleged that Union Minister for Consumer Affairs Piyush Goyal and Minister of State Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti did not give him an audience in Delhi. He said the state government has placed orders for rice with National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation (NCCF), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) and Kendriya Bhandar.
Though Siddaramaiah met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and discussed the matter, there have been no signs of support from the Centre. Shah only promised Siddaramaiah he will speak with Goyal. But neither Muniyappa nor the CMO has received any communication on the Centre’s decision Thursday. Hours before meeting Shah, Siddaramaiah accused the central government of playing “dirty politics” over rice supply to Karnataka.
The state needs 2.28 lakh MT of rice per month to distribute 10kg free of cost to every member of a BPL family and Antyodaya Anna Yojna card holders. If procured at a price similar to that of FCI (Rs 3,400 per quintal), the state needs Rs 840 crore per month and about Rs 10,092 crore annually.
Siddaramaiah, who is likely to present the State Budget on July 7, is expected to allocate funds for the five guarantees, including Anna Bhagya. The Centre is giving its share of 5kg rice and the state has to provide 5kg more. The state government also had a plan to distribute 3kg of rice, 2kg of ragi or maize if it fails to procure rice. Muniyappa himself had mooted this.
Siddaramaiah had alleged that FCI, which had agreed to supply rice in response to a letter by his government, changed its decision after the Union Consumer Affairs ministry announcement on June 13 to discontinue sale of rice to states under Open Market Sale Scheme-Domestic to check inflationary trend of rice price.