BENGALURU: Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Friday said that the Congress will stage a protest in all district headquarters of the state on June 20 against the BJP-led central government for denying rice to the state for launching its ‘Anna Bhagya’ scheme.
Shivakumar alleged “politics of hatred” by the BJP and said that the move is anti-poor. The Congress-led state government will implement the scheme at any cost, he asserted.
“It is politics of hatred; they are anti-poor people who hit on the stomachs of the poor people. The corrupt BJP is showing its arrogance towards poor people. But we will certainly implement the scheme at any cost. We condemn this approach and next Tuesday (June 20), we will be holding protests against the BJP across the state”, he said.
Meanwhile, the BJP also said that the Karnataka government was attempting to politicise the issue and has no intention to roll out the ‘Anna Bhagya’ scheme. Former minister R Ashoka said that the BJP will hold a statewide protest if the state government does not launch the scheme by July 1.
Under the ‘Anna Bhagya’ guarantee scheme that had scheduled to be rolled out from July 1, the Congress has promised 10 kg free rice distribution to each member of BPL and Antyodaya card-holder families. On Thursday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had also alleged that the Union government was creating obstacles to the ‘Anna Bhagya’ scheme rollout.
Shivakumar further said that for those who were raising questions on the ability of the Karnataka government to implement all the five guarantees promised in the Congress manifesto, he pointed out that on the first day in government, they had announced the dates and timeline of how all the guarantees will be implemented.
“The Centre, despite having stock, are not giving it. As they had initially agreed to give rice, we had announced that we will supply it from July 1. We will arrange rice somehow and roll out the scheme, there may be a couple of days delay due to procurement and transportation”, Shivakumar said.
Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya refuted the allegations of the Centre blocking the rollout of the ‘Anna Bhagya’ scheme and accused the Congress-led government of “running on half-truths.” “Congress in Karnataka is running a government of half lies with respect to this FCI (Food Corporation of India ) issue”, Surya said.
Tejasvi Surya said the Congress’ allegation that the Center denies free foodgrains to Karnataka is false. “Under the National Food Security Act, every person in Karnataka, like the rest of the country, is entitled to 5 kg of foodgrains. Therefore, their (Congress) allegation that the Centre is denying free foodgrains to Karnataka is false”, Tejasvi Surya added. (ANI)