Karnataka govt starts cash disbursal instead of 5 kg rice

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday launched payment of cash in lieu of the additional 5 kg of rice to beneficiaries under the government's 'Anna Bhagya' scheme.

With the launch of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) programme, the Congress government in the state is fulfilling one more of its five poll 'guarantees' (promises) announced in the run-up to the elections held in May.

Facing difficulty in procuring large quantities of rice to implement it, the state government decided to pay cash to beneficiaries at the rate of Rs 34 per kg for the additional 5 kg of rice under the free rice scheme, which is applicable to every member of a BPL household and  'Antyodaya' households.

Launching the DBT,  Siddaramaiah said a total of 4.42 crore people will benefit from the scheme. The scheme was launched in two districts -- Mysuru and Kolar -- today, and all districts in the state would be covered within this month itself.

Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Partygovernment at the Centre of playing "dirty politics" by depriving the state of the required quantity of rice for 'Anna Bhagya' scheme procured through Food Corporation of India (FCI) despite the latter having enough stocks, he said: "As we had promised to launch the scheme in July, we decided to provide Rs 170 per month per person at Rs 34 per kg until we get rice to supply. In the meantime, the government has also called for tenders to purchase rice from the open market."

This will cost a total of Rs 10,000 crore per annum, Siddaramaiah said, as he recalled that 10 years ago on this day, he had launched the 'Anna Bhagya' scheme when he became the chief minister for the first time.

Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, ministers H K Patil, Ramalinga Reddy and K J George among several of Siddaramaiah's cabinet colleagues were present at the event.

Stating that the funds will be first transferred to the beneficiaries of Mysuru and Kolar districts, Food and Civil Supplies Minister K H Muniyappa said, "From tomorrow, money will be transferred to all the beneficiaries of the state in a phased manner every day -- starting from Ramanagara, Bengaluru Rural, Bagalkote, Yadgir and Dharwad...we will cover all districts in about 10 days."

According to the state government, Karnataka has 1.28 crore ration cards of 'Antyodaya Anna Yojana and Priority Households'.

As much as 99 per cent of these cards are seeded with an Aadhaar number, it said, adding that 82 per cent (1.06 crore) of these cards are linked with active bank accounts, and the cash transfer will start for these beneficiaries.

The remaining ration card holders will be intimated to open new accounts, it added.

As many as 1.27 crore ration cards have one member designated as heads of households (HoH). Cash will be transferred to the bank accounts of these HoHs. It said 94 per cent of HoH are women and 5 per cent are men.

Siddaramaiah said the implementation of all five poll guarantees will cost more than Rs 52,000 crore annually.

The government has already implemented one poll guarantee, 'Shakti' by providing free services for women in public transport buses last month. While the 'Gruha Jyothi' scheme to provide 200 units of free electricity to households has already come into effect from the beginning of this month, the electricity bill for the same for this month will come in the beginning of August.

The remaining two guarantees that the government is taking steps to implement are -- Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi) from August 16; and Rs 3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders (Yuva Nidhi) by November or December.