Members from the ruling BJP and Congress in the Legislative Assembly claimed credit for the Anna Bhagya scheme under which the poor get free rice through public distribution system (PDS).
The scheme was unveiled in 2013 by then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, with an ambitious initiative to supply 30 kg of rice at ₹1 to nearly one crore poor families across the State.
The issue was raised by Dharwad MLA Aravind Bellad during a discussion on the Budget demands. He said Mr. Siddaramaiah announced the free rice scheme on the day he took oath as Chief Minister to ensure he solely got credit for it. “The fact is that 85% of the rice for the scheme was being supplied by the Centre,” he said.
Disputing Mr. Bellad, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the Centre was providing subsidy only for five of the seven kg of free rice given under the scheme. “The subsidy was under the National Food Security Act. We were procuring the remaining two kg at the market rate and spent over ₹4,200 for food subsidy. You should request your Chief Minister to increase the distribution to 7 kg from the 5 kg being given currently,” he told Mr. Bellad.
He said he had announced the scheme on the same day after taking oath as the Chief Minister because he had seen the poor cooking rice only on festivals or whenever they had guests as they could not afford to buy rice and not to claim credit. “They had ragi mudde on regular days. Whenever children fell sick, these poor families went to the houses of those who cooked rice and requested some cooked rice for the sick children,” he recalled.
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