Muniyappa to meet Goyal on Friday in the hope of procuring rice for Anna Bhagya- NSP NEWS

Offering a ray of hope for the State that is keen to launch the Anna Bhagya scheme from July 1, a meeting between Union Commerce and Food Minister Piyush Goyal and Karnataka Food and Civil Supplies Minister K.H. Muniyappa has been convened on Friday.

The decision on the meeting comes a day after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, during his meeting in Delhi, urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to speak to Mr. Goyal to ensure supply of rice for the scheme for the welfare of the poor. Mr. Shah had promised to speak to Mr. Goyal.

State’s need

Sources said that Mr. Muniyappa will meet Mr. Goyal on Friday to explain Karnataka’s requirement. Mr. Muniyappa had returned to Bengaluru on Thursday morning from Delhi, but will reach Delhi on time for the meeting scheduled in the morning on Friday, sources said. On Thursday, while Mr. Muniyappa and Mr. Siddaramaiah arrived in separate flights to Bengaluru, both of them met briefly to discuss the issue, sources said.

Karnataka is keen to purchase rice for the Anna Bhagya scheme that entails an additional 5 kg rice per head in the BPL cardholding families in the State, over and above the 5 kg rice being supplied by the Centre. The FCI charges ₹36.6 per kg of rice, including ₹2.6 transportation cost, but has refused to supply the required 2.28 lakh tonne per month.

Search in other States

Following the refusal by FCI to supply rice, Karnataka’ s search to find rice closer to the cost of FCI supply has not fructified. Rice procurement and transport from Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Punjab, where it is available, has been calculated to be more expensive than the FCI supply. The State is also looking to take quotation for supply of rice from national cooperative agencies such as NAFED and NCCF, besides Kendriya Bhandar.

A senior source in the government indicated that the government is likely to take a call on the launch of the scheme after getting quotes from States and agencies.