The rice row: Taking stock of Karnataka’s demand, gap
State wants 2.28 lakh MT per annum extra, points to FCI stock of 265 lakh MT on June 15, against required buffer of 135 lakh MT; Cong says Karnataka bought almost all of FCI’s rice this year
THE CONGRESS government in Karnataka has called the Centre’s order earlier this month stopping sale of food grains to states from Food Corporation of India (FCI) stocks as targeted against its Anna Bhagya scheme.
One of the Congress’s “five guarantees” to voters that are believed to have helped the party win last month’s elections, the scheme to provide an extra 5 kg of food grains per member per BPL family – over and above the 5 kg promised by the Centre under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) – was to roll out on July 1.
The Siddaramaiah government said it had been banking on FCI supply to meet its promise, and announced the July 1 launch after calculating the availability of stocks. Karnataka’s demand, given the preference of residents, is essentially rice.
“We wanted to start the free rice scheme from July 1 but we are not getting supplies of rice. We thought about procuring it from Punjab and Chhattisgarh. We spoke to Chhattisgarh, we spoke to Telangana, we spoke to Andhra Pradesh, but we are not getting the quantity that is required by the state. Even if supply is possible, they are quoting high rates,” the CM said on Saturday.
The Congress has slammed the June 13 decision of the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Food Distribution to exclude state governments from the ambit of the Open Market Sale Scheme (Domestic) – OMSS (D) – of the FCI as “anti-poor”. The Centre describes the move as anti-inflationary, “to maintain sufficient stocks for market intervention/control prices of wheat and rice”. An appeal by Siddaramaiah to the Centre for a rethink during his visit to Delhi was turned down.
Karnataka has said it needs 2.28 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of rice to facilitate 5 kg of free rice per member per BPL family over the next one year, apart from what is given under the NFSA.
So how short is it?
Karnataka’s numbers
The Siddaramaiah government’s calculation is that it needs 2.28 lakh MT of rice per annum, in addition to the 2.17 lakh MT provided per year by the Centre under the NFSA or Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana.
The Karnataka scheme has identified 1.19 crore BPL card holding families for Anna Bhagya. The Central scheme recognises 96.19 lakh regular BPL card holder families, plus 10.36 lakh state BPL card holders as NFSA beneficiaries – making a total of 1.06 crore family beneficiaries.
The Karnataka government estimates the total number of individual beneficiaries for its scheme as 4.42 crore, which is nearly 39 lakh in excess of Central beneficiaries, according to Karnataka Food and Civil Supplies Minister K H Muniyappa.
The Siddaramaiah government calculated an expenditure of Rs 890 crore per month or Rs 10,092 crore per year on the scheme, hoping to source rice from the FCI at Rs 34 per kg (including Rs 2.60 per kg for transportation).
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