The Congress government in Karnataka is unlikely to accept a new offer from the Centre to supply rice for Rs 28 per kg for the implementation of the Anna Bhagya welfare scheme, according to Food and Civil Supplies Minister K H Muniyappa.
Muniyappa indicated on Tuesday that the Centre’s August 1 decision to allow states with welfare schemes to directly purchase rice from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) under the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS-domestic) for Rs 28 per kg carried uncertainty since supplies would be available only until buffer stocks lasted.
“How long will they supply the rice? They will provide rice only as long as the buffer stocks last, and after that, they will stop supplying rice,” Muniyappa said, referring to the new proposal.
The Congress in Karnataka had made an election promise in 2023 to supply 5 kg of free rice to people living below the poverty line but could not implement the promise due to the non-availability of rice supplies from the Centre. The Congress’s promise of 5 kg rice was in addition to the 5 kg of rice provided by the Centre under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).
After coming to power, Congress was compelled to offer Rs 170 per month in cash transfers to each member of a below-poverty-line (BPL) family instead of providing 5 kilograms of free rice. This decision was made due to the shortage of rice supplies from the FCI as a result of restrictions on states from purchasing rice under the OMSS. However, many families still consider the free rice scheme to be more advantageous than cash transfers.
“Union minister Pralhad Joshi has come up with a new scheme, he is saying the Centre is willing to provide rice for Rs 28 per kg. The chief minister and deputy chief minister had earlier promised to provide 10 kg of rice in Karnataka. We requested the Centre to provide rice supplies,” the Karnataka minister said at a Congress rally Tuesday.
“The then Union minister did not provide rice even though there were stocks. This was done for politics. With a loss of Rs 12 to Rs 14 for a kg of rice to the national exchequer, they have now come forward to provide rice to the states,” Muniyappa said.
“When we asked for rice they did not provide it. Now they are willing to provide rice at a loss of several crores of rupees. However, they are paying the farmer Rs 40 per kg,” he said.
In June 2023, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution decided to exclude state governments from the ambit of the OMSS (domestic) “to maintain sufficient stocks for market intervention/control prices of wheat and rice through OMSS(D)”.
The Centre’s order to prevent states from buying rice stocks from the FCI to control inflation came a day after an FCI official communicated in two separate letters on June 12 that the FCI was willing to supply 2.08 lakh metric tonnes and 13,819 metric tonnes of rice to Karnataka.
The move by the Centre to prevent Karnataka access to the FCI stocks for its populist scheme of providing five kg of rice to every member of BPL families – in addition to 5 kg being supplied by the Centre – resulted in the Congress government in Karnataka crying foul.
“The central government is trying to scuttle a scheme that provides rice to the poor people. They should not have politicized this. Despite the availability of stock, they (FCI) are refusing to supply,” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said after the order of June 13, 2023.
The Karnataka government outlined a requirement of 2.28 lakh metric tonnes of rice per annum for its own 5 kg free rice scheme. This is in addition to the 2.17 lakh metric tonnes of rice provided per year under the National Food Security Act, 2013, or the PMGKAY.
The Karnataka scheme had outlined a total of 1.19 crore BPL card-holding families for the scheme. In contrast, the central scheme authenticated 96.19 lakh regular BPL card holders plus 10.36 lakh state BPL card holders – making up a total of 1.06 crore Aadhaar-authenticated ration cards.
The Karnataka government identified 4.42 crore individual beneficiaries for the scheme, nearly 39 lakh more than the central beneficiaries. The state scheme was expected to cost the Karnataka government Rs 890 crore per month or Rs 10,092 crore per year if the rice is sourced from FCI at the rate of Rs 34 per kg, as initially agreed by the FCI with an additional Rs 2.60 per kg for transportation costs.
Many senior officials in the Karnataka government regarded the failure to secure rice supplies for the Anna Bhagya scheme as a benefit for the state since it facilitated direct fund transfers to beneficiaries and prevented corruption, such as the black marketing of rice procured for the scheme and inflation of transportation and storage costs.
The Anna Bhagya scheme was among the five guarantees made by Congress ahead of the 2023 Karnataka polls. The Karnataka government also launched four other schemes. The Shakti scheme offers free bus travel for women, the Gruha Lakshmi scheme provides Rs 2,000 per month for women who are heads of families, the Gruha Jyothi scheme offers free power of up to 200 units, and the Yuva Nidhi scheme pays allowances of Rs 3,000 to graduates who have been unemployed for two years.
Source: Indian Express
