Rice on the boil: Congress plans protest in Karnataka, BJP set to counter
BENGALURU: Accusing the Centre of refusing to release rice to implement its Anna Bhagya scheme , the governing Congress on Friday said it will hold protests in all district headquarters on June 20 against the Union government’s decision.
DK Shivakumar, Karnataka Congress president and deputy chief minister, said the BJP government at the Centre is “indulging in politics of hate” by barring Food Corporation of India (FCI) from supplying the required quantity of rice to implement the scheme.
“So, we are registering our protest against the Centre’s anti-poor stand,” Shivakumar said. “I want to congratulate BJP national president JP Nadda, as they [BJP] have walked the talk,” he sarcastically said. “During campaigning for the assembly elections, Nadda had said if BJP loses, the Centre will stop grants to Karnataka. He has kept his word by stopping the sale of rice to Karnataka. ”
Shivakumar directed all Congress MLAs to take part in the protest. He said Congress is committed to providing 10kg rice to each member of BPL families as promised, no matter if the Centre givesrice or not. “We are already in touch with states that grow rice. We will not disclose their names as the Centre may pressurise them not to sell to us,” he said.
Shivakumar also took a dig at those who were “raising questions on the ability of the Karnataka government” to implement all five of its pre-election guarantees which were stated in the party’s manifesto for the assembly elections. He said he wanted to tell them that on the first day in government, “Congress had announced dates and a timeline on how all the five guaranteeswill be implemented”.
‘Politicising the issue’
Meanwhile, top BJP functionaries reiterated that the Karnataka government is “politicising the issue” and that it has no intention of rolling out the Anna Bhagya scheme, one of Congress’ pre-election guarantees and a pet project of CM Siddaramaiah.
R Ashoka, a former minister, said BJP will hold a statewide protest if the state government does not launch the scheme by July 1.
Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya denied allegations that the Centre is blocking the roll-out of the scheme and accused the Congress government of “running on half-truths’’. “Under the National Food Security Act, every person in Karnataka, just like the rest of the country, is entitled to 5kg of foodgrains,” Surya said. “Their [Congress] allegation that the Centre is denying free foodgrains to Karnataka is false. ”
In response to comments from BJP national general secretary CT Ravi, who called him a liar and asked him to prove allegations, chief minister Siddaramaiah shared FCI’s commitment letter on his Twitter handle.
The chief minister claimed the Union government was creating “obstacles” in the roll-out of the Anna Bhagya scheme. “Despite having enough stock, the Centre is not giving us rice,” Siddaramaiah said. “After they [FCI] initially agreed to give rice, we announced that we would implement the scheme from July 1. We are committed to implementing the scheme and will arrange for stocks of rice somehow. There may be a couple of days’ delay due to procurement and transportation. We want to be transparent with the purchase. ”
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