Centre turns down request to supply rice for state scheme citing lack of stock: Food Minister Muniyappa

New Delhi: Union Minister Piyush Goyal has turned down the Karnataka government’s request to supply rice for implementation of a poll promise of free rice distribution citing a lack of stock, state Food Minister K H Muniyappa said on Friday.

After meeting Union Food Minister Piyush Goyal, Muniyappa said, “The state government has announced 10 kg of free rice. For that purpose, we requested for rice. We are ready to pay the price. But the Minister has said there is no stock and unable to give.

Muniyappa informed in the meeting that there is enough rice stock in the central pool. Against the buffer stock of 135 lakh tonnes of rice, the central pool has 262 lakh tonnes.

“We requested rice for BPL cardholders. He (Goyal) said it is not possible to give. It is politically motivated. The minister is not willing to give even though the rice is available,” he told reporters.

Therefore, the state government has identified central agencies like Nafed, Kendriya Bhandar and NCCF to procure rice for the state scheme “Anna Bhagya”, he said, and added that the government will fulfil its commitment and distribute free rice to the poor as early as possible. There are more than 1.19 crore BPL cardholders and 4.42 crore beneficiaries in Karnataka, he added.

Karnataka and other states which are operating their own state schemes are hit hard after the central government on June 13 discontinued sale of rice under the open market sale scheme (OMSS) to state governments due to inflationary pressure.

In a representation submitted to Goyal, Muniyappa said the Karnataka government has been making use of the OMSS scheme for sourcing rice for state cards that are sanctioned over and above the cards under National Food Security Act (NFSA) and for given one kg of rice as additional entitlement to all ration cardholder for the last seven months.

The state government requires 2.29 lakh tonnes of rice per month for distribution of an additional 5 kg of rice to all beneficiaries of NFSA and state cardholders, he said.

“The sudden discontinuation of OMSS took away the possibility of getting rice from FCI for this state scheme unexpectedly. It is not only difficult to launch the new programme of giving additional 5 kg rice per member per month, but also stopped regular monthly entitlement of foodgrains of 39 lakh beneficiaries of state ration holders,” he said.

As kharif procurement season is over in most parts of the country, the state’s efforts to source rice from other states or from open market is becoming “challenging,” he said.

It may be noted that the Centre is supplying monthly 5 kg free rice per beneficiary under the NFSA at present. Over and above this, the Karnataka government will supply additional 5 kg of free rice.