CM Siddaramaiah 'blatantly misleading' people by blaming Centre over supply of rice for 'Anna Bhagya' scheme: BJP

Bengaluru: The opposition BJP on Saturday alleged that Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was misleading the people blatantly by accusing the Union government of ensuring the state does not get the required amount of rice to implement its ‘Anna Bhagya’ scheme, which provides additional 5 kilograms of rice for BPL families.

BJP’s Member of Parliament from Bangalore South Tejasvi Surya released the documents as he accused the Congress government in the state of “lying”.

“Siddaramaiah is trying to mislead people of Karnataka blatantly by alleging that the Union government deliberately changed OMSS (Open Market Sale Scheme-Domestic) policy after the Karnataka government requested for additional sale of rice,” Surya said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said: “But the minutes of the inter-ministerial committee meeting dated June 8, which is before the state government requested regional FCI, show that the change in OMSS policy was already suggested in view of the increase in price of wheat and rice across the country.”

“It also very clearly shows that the process to reconsider this policy had started way back in early May by the inter-ministerial committee, much before even the Karnataka elections were held,” he added.

The Chief Minister and his cabinet ministers have alleged that the Centre discontinued the sale of wheat and rice under OMSS(D) for state governments, a day after the FCI — which has large quantity of stocks — had agreed to provide 2,08,425.750 metric tonne of rice to Karnataka at a rate of Rs 34 per kg on June 12.

Siddaramaiah and his ministers have accused the BJP-led government at the Centre of conspiring to “fail” the Congress administration’s poll guarantee by ensuring that the state doesn’t get the required amount of rice for rolling out the scheme from July 1, as promised.

Alleging that the Congress and Siddaramaiah are blatantly lying to hide their own incompetence and are desperately trying to blame the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, the MP said: “The Congress government wanted to pass on the Union government’s subsidised rice scheme as their own and now, when caught in the act, are trying to fool the public.”

“If at all the Congress is serious about their commitment to provide 10 kg rice to people of Karnataka as per their poll promise, they must procure 10 kg rice from open market and distribute it in addition to the 5 kg rice given by the Modi government under the NFSA (National Food Security Act).”

As part of implementing Congress’ five poll guarantees, the Siddaramaiah government earlier this month decided to roll out ‘Anna Bhagya’ scheme, providing a total 10 kg of foodgrains/rice to every member of a BPL household and Antyodaya card holders every month from July 1.

Five kg of rice is already being given to every member of a BPL household, it is now being enhanced by another five kg by the new government.

Surya also suggested the Siddaramaiah government to procure rice from the state’s farmers directly as is being done in states like Tamil Nadu and West Bengal among others, instead of going for other sources or rice-producing states.

The state government has said that talks are underway with rice-producing states like Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh among others to procure the required quantity for ‘Anna Bhagya’ scheme.

He also said the Congress government is misleading people by stating that Centre was ready to supply to private players but not to the state governments.