Minister for Food and Civil Supplies K.H. Muniyappa on Monday said the Karnataka Government has resumed talks with rice-growing States, including Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh on procuring rice for the distribution of an additional 5 kg rice under Anna Bhagya.
Faced with the challenge of procuring rice after the Centre declined to consider State’s request for rice supply, the State, instead of additional five kilos of rice, was paying beneficiaries at the rate of ₹34 per kg for the additional five kg of rice under the free rice scheme.
“The Centre declined to provide rice to the State. It has been a challenge to procure such a huge quantity of rice in the open market. The State needs nearly two lakh tonnes of rice a month for distribution under the scheme. Yet, the State was making best efforts to procure rice to provide 10 kg of rice as promised,” the Minister said in Mysuru.
Mr. Muniyappa, who was in Mysuru to launch the ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ awareness drive, said the transportation of rice from neighboring States may not be as challenging as procuring rice from States like Punjab. “The negotiations are on. Some beneficiaries requested the State to give them rice instead of cash. Talks are underway with the States on the rate. Last time, the price discussed was ₹34 per kilo. Our marketing federations are carrying out the negotiations,” he told reporters.
He said the State had been transferring cash to the beneficiaries’ accounts since July. A sum of ₹566 crore was transferred in July, was ₹605 crore in August, and ₹627 crore in September. In October, ₹644 crore was transferred. Every month, the number of beneficiaries’ being included under the benefit transfer was increasing.
The Minister said ₹10,000 crores had been set aside in the budget for the payment of cash for the additional five kilos of rice. As many as 1.28 crore BPL families were eligible for the benefit but 1.10 crore beneficiaries had been availing the benefit so far. Nearly 18 lakh beneficiaries were yet to come under the benefit.
