Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah discusses rice supply issue with Amit Shah

New Delhi/Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday night, and took up the issue of rice supply to the state for its 'Anna Bhagya' scheme, which provides additional 5 kg of rice for each member of BPL families.

According to the Chief Minister's office, Siddaramaiah during the meeting told Shah that the Centre's policy was causing obstacles in supply of food for the poor. Shah said he will discuss the issue with Union Food Minister Piyush Goyal.

Being termed as a "courtesy call", the meeting in New Delhi is Siddaramaiah's first with the Union Home Minister after taking over as the chief minister.

According to the statement by CMO, Siddaramaiah opined that "the Centre's new policy is against the Food Security Act, it will directly affect two times meals of the poor, hence it will be good if the policy of not supplying foodgrains to the states is changed." "Shah, in turn, told the chief minister that he will discuss with Union Food Minister Piyush Goyal in this regard on Thursday morning," it added.

Siddaramaiah and his ministers for the last few days, have been accusing the BJP-led government at the Centre of conspiring to "fail" the Congress administration's poll guarantee by ensuring that the state doesn't get the required amount of rice from Food Corporation of India, for rolling out the 'Anna Bhagya' scheme, from July 1, as promised.

They have alleged that the Centre discontinued the sale of wheat and rice under OMSS(D) for state governments, a day after the FCI -- which has a large quantity of stocks -- had agreed to provide 2,28,425.750 metric tonne of rice to Karnataka, at a rate of Rs 34 per kg on June 12.

The BJP, however, has hit back accusing the Congress and Siddaramaiah of blatantly "lying to hide their own incompetence" and desperately trying to blame Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre.

Speaking to reporters earlier in the day, Siddaramaiah had said he will flag the issue of rice supply during his meeting with Shah, and indicated that there may be slight delay in implementing the Anna Bhagya scheme, as the Centre played "dirty politics".

Charging that the FCI expressed inability to supply rice to Karnataka allegedly on the instance of the central government, after initially agreeing, the CM in response to a question said the Government of India played a "dirty politics", "hate politics".

Noting that the state government is trying to procure rice and has reached out to various producing states like Telangana, West Bengal, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, he, however, said they will not be able to supply the state's requirement of 2,28,000 metric tonne. "Also, the cost of transportation will be high".

"From Andhra it will cost Rs 42 per kg of rice, Telangana said only paddy is available not rice, Chhattisgarh CM told me they are in a position to supply 1 lakh metric tonne of rice only for one month, Punjab CM said he will discuss with officials and get back," he said.

Siddaramaiah pointed out that such a large quantity of rice is not available in Karnataka and said, "we will have to go for a tender in the open market, it will take a minimum of two months".

"So we have called for quotations from central government agencies like NCCF, NAFED, Kendriya Bhandar. We will get to know tomorrow from them, once we get to know we will decide. There may be slight delay in implementing the scheme as the central government has played politics," he claimed.