The State Government chose the occasion of May Day to launch the flagship programme of reformed ‘Anna Bhagya’ scheme which now envisages supply of rice to the poor families at completely free of cost.
Under the scheme that was launched in a grand manner in front of the Vidhana Soudha ahead of the village panchayat polls by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, rice will be provided at a rate of five kg a person without any upper ceiling on the total quantum unlike the previous system where the maximum quantum was pegged at 30 kg a family a month. Also, earlier the beneficiaries had to pay a nominal price of one rupee a kg which has now been abolished.
In addition to rice, the reformed scheme also provides one litre of palm oil and one kg of iodised salt at subsidised rates. Subsidised sugar of one kg, which was part of the earlier scheme, has been continued in the reformed version too. The scheme was launched in all the districts by the respective district in-charge ministers.
Launching the reformed scheme, Mr. Siddaramaiah said a massive 1.07 crore families with a total population of four crore were benefitted by this welfare initiative.
Defending the decision to provide free rice to poor families, he said such a scheme was needed to free the state from hunger and malnutrition as Karnataka had highest number of poor people in the entire southern region of the country. While the composition of poor people accounted for 23.6 per cent of Karnataka’s total population, the other southern states of Andhra Pradesh (undivided), Tamil Nadu and Kerala had accounted for only 21, 17 and 12 per cent of poor people, he noted.
Launching an offensive against those blaming Anna Bhagya scheme as responsible for triggering shortage in farm labour, he remarked, “These poor people have worked so hard and non-stop for centuries together that their backs are bent. There is nothing wrong if they take rest for sometime”.
Through the free rice scheme, the government was only trying to guarantee the Right to Life granted to all the citizens under Article 21 of the Constitution, he said while maintaining that, “this was the aspiration of Constitution drafting committee chairman B. R. Ambedkar too”.
Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies Dinesh Gundu Rao and several ministers and MLAs who represent Bengaluru were also present.
