Bengaluru: Congress Chief Minister Siddaramaiah accused the BJP government at the Centre of being anti-poor and pro-capitalists. He also said that the BJP was 'neech' (despicable) and anti-humanity as they had denied supply of additional supply of rice to aid the poor.
Karnataka had sought rice from the Centre to provide an additional 5 kgs to every beneficiary under the Anna Bhagya scheme of the State government.
“When I was the CM during my previous tenure, I was giving seven kg rice free but the previous BJP government reduced it to four kg and five kg. During the assembly election, I promised that we will give an additional five kg more,” Siddaramaiah said.
He said that they had also reached an agreement with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to procure the rice. The FCI had assured the state government that it would provide the rice.
“We trust them (FCI) but the Centre denied us rice. We did not ask for rice for free. We were ready to pay for it. When we asked for rice, they agreed and then backtracked. You have to decide how ‘neech' (despicable) they are," he said.
"They are anti-poor. They don't have humanity,” Siddaramaiah added.
Explaining the reason behind the Centre backtracking from supplying rice to Karnataka, the chief minister said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that if free rice is given to the poor people, those states will go bankrupt. We told him that we will implement the five guarantees and we will not let the state go bankrupt.”
The CM also explained that out of the five poll guarantees, four have been implemented in the state. They are 'Shakti' offering free bus rides to women in non-luxury government buses, 'Gruha Lakshmi' providing Rs 2,000 to the women head of families, 'Gruha Jyothi' promising up to 200 units of free electricity to each household and 'Anna Bhagya' offering 10 kg rice to BPL families.