The State government has decided to file criminal cases against bogus ration card holders to weed out such cards and ensure that all below the poverty line (BPL) families got foodgrains under the Anna Bhagya scheme.
Criminal cases will be booked against families that decline to surrender their bogus ration cards, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Friday after inaugurating the renovated building of the Press Club of Bangalore here.
The subsidy amount for the Anna Bhagya scheme increased from Rs. 900 crore to Rs. 4,300 crore a year on account of distribution of rice to 1.02 crore BPL families at Re. 1 a kg (up to 30 kg a month for a family), he said.
He said officials of the Food and Civil Supplies Department would conduct Aahara Adalats on the seventh of every month on ration shop premises and listen to the grievances of ration cardholders. There are over 20,000 ration shops in the State.
To ensure availability of food items to the needy families, owners of ration shops had been instructed to keep the shops open from 9 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. during the first 10 days of every month.
He said expenditure on various welfare schemes should not be construed as a wasteful spending because their objective was to enhance human development.
Under the Ksheera Bhagya scheme, milk was being provided to 1.04 crore schoolchildren studying in anganwadi to Class 10. A total of 8.5 lakh litres of milk was being provided to schoolchildren a day.
The Chief Minister said incentive for a litre of milk had been increased from Rs. 2 to Rs. 4 and this had resulted in the increase in milk production. The Karnataka Milk Federation has been receiving 55 lakh litres of milk a day against the earlier 36 lakh litres, he said.
‘Not referendum’The Chief Minister said the Lok Sabha election results should not be viewed as a referendum on the State government because the elections were fought on national issues.
Minister for Information and Infrastructure R. Roshan Baig said the government had decided to extend health insurance scheme to journalists who have more than 15 years of experience. Journalists having more than 20 years of experience would get pension. A nine-member committee headed by Mr. Baig would formulate guidelines for both the schemes.
The renovated Press Club of Bangalore Bhavan has a badminton court, table tennis facility and billiards table.
