Anna Bhagya: BJP alleges ₹120cr scam, govt in denial
Congress govt on Monday faced fresh BJP charges of a Rs 120-crore scam in rice procurement for ‘Anna Bhagya’ programme, one of the five key guarantee programmes introduced last year.
In the legislative council, BJP’s N Ravikumar said two state departments were buying rice at two different prices, sniffing largescale irregularities and misappropriation under the scheme. While the food and civil supplies department is buying 1kg of rice at Rs 34.60 for the scheme, the school education and literacy department is procuring 1kg of rice at Rs 29.30 for midday meals distributed among lakhs of children in govt schools. Defending the differential procurement pricing, food and civil supplies minister KH Muniyappa said rice is of ‘good quality’.
With opposition leaders and ministers locking horns, council chairperson Basavaraj Horatti suggested a 30-minute discussion this week. Both food and civil supplies and school education and literacy departments purchase the same quality of rice from three central agencies: Kendriya Bhandar, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (Nafed), and National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF).
“Why is there a difference of Rs 5.30 per kg? Prima facie, the rice procurement exercise under the scheme appears to be a big scam worth Rs 120 crore,” Ravikumar alleged.
After Muniyappa’s strong defence that quality rice procurement comes with a tag, Ravikumar said, “Is the govt providing ‘poor quality’ rice to school kids as part of midday meal scheme?”
Education minister Madhu S Bangarappa claimed: “The cost difference is probably driven by different procurement processes in both departments.”
Muniyappa blamed the central govt for non-cooperation. “The Centre has been charging high prices despite sufficient stock at its units, resulting in variation of procurement costs. We did not even float a tender to procure rice and have been paying the price quoted by the Centre,” he added.
This article has been republished from The Times of India.