The Congress, among its five poll guarantees before the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections, had promised the people of the state that 10 kg of rice would be provided to per person falling under the BPL category per month.
After the Congress did come into power, the Siddaramaiah government soon embarked upon implementing the aforementioned scheme. However, the state government does not have enough rice to meet its requirement.
The state needed supply of 4.45 lakh metric tonnes of rice to fulfill this promise, but they themselves have only 2.17 lakh metric tonnes. This rice is available under the National Food Security Act. However, the state is still in requirement of 2.28 lakh metric tonnes of rice to provide the extra 5 kg of rice than what the previous BJP government used to provide.
Siddaramaiah had first written to the Food Corporation of India, asking to purchase rice from the central government. Although, according to the CM, the FCI did agree to sell 2,08,425.750 metric tonnes of rice to the state at a price of Rs 34 per kg, it later backtracked on its word.
The CM said, “The Union government is doing politics. We had written to them (the Food Corporation of India) on 9 June that they should give us 2.28 lakh metric tonnes of rice. They answered on 12 June that they would supply the same. However, on 14 June, the MD and the chairman of the FCI wrote to us that it could not give us rice.”
When asked why he did not speak to Union Minister for Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal, Siddaramaiah said that he would have if the FCI had advised him to do so.
Protests and counter-protests ensued hereon, with the Congress miffed at the central government's U-turn and BJP taking to the streets against the government not being able to fulfill its promise after coming to power.
The Karnataka government later approached other states like Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, and Chhattigarh.
Regarding this, Deputy CM D K Shivakumar said, “We have spoken to Punjab, Chhattisgarh and other neighbouring states. We are going to buy grain from them. I request the central government not to do politics, you are not giving your rice, it is farmers’ rice. We don’t want free rice from anyone, the Karnataka government is capable of buying it.”
The CM also spoke to his Telengana counterpart, K Chandrashekar Rao, who told him that his state does not have enough rice to send to Karnataka. Siddaramaiah had further revealed that while Chhattisgarh did have enough rice, the rate the state was asking for, along with the transport cost, was pretty high.
According to a Hindustan Times report, the AAP government in Punjab is ready to provide Karnataka with the rice it requires. This comes at a time when when Kejriwal is trying to coerce the Congress into making its stance clear on the Delhi ordinance row.
Siddaharamaiah, on his part, has said he would ask the state's chief secretary to contact the Punjab government regarding this.
AAP's Punjab state president Prithvi Reddy, despite saying Bhagwant Mann is willing to provide Karnataka with rice, took a slight dig at the Congress, saying, “The Congress party in the state has come to power without any prior preparation, merely copying the programs of the Aam Aadmi Party and hastily announcing numerous guarantees for vote bank politics. We will not engage in political hypocrisy while the poor people of the state suffer due to these ill-conceived promises.”
Whether the rice peace offering and the Patna meeting help form a cohesive Opposition remains to be seen.
Siddaramaiah, in his recent Delhi visit, also met Home Minister Amit Shah regarding the rice issue. After the meeting, the CM told the media, "I met Amit Shah last night. I have brought to his notice that FCI had agreed to supply rice and had also written a letter in this regard, but all of a sudden the very next day they said they cannot supply. Prima facie it looks like politics has been played here. Let there be no hate politics in this, as this is the programme for providing rice to the poor."
A DH report reveals that the non-availability of rice might delay the implementation of the Anna Bhagya scheme to August.