Bengaluru: Considering that the commission given to distributors of Public Distribution System was "low" in Karnataka, Chief Minister on Thursday announced hike in commission amount for distributors of Public Distribution System (PDS) from Rs 1.24 to Rs 1.50 for a kg of rice distributed to the beneficiaries and the hike has been agreed owing to insistence of Minister for Food and Civil Supplies K.H. Muniyappa.
Addressing the gathering at the celebration of decennial of “Anna Bhagya” scheme launch to distribute rice for free-of-cost for BPL/Antyodaya card holders, Siddaramaiah’s announcement was cheered by the gathering with whistle blowing and the Chief Minister asked the gathering “Is the hike in commission amount acceptable to you?”
He questioned the gathering “Will you stand by us (in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections)?” and recalled that when Congress was in power from 2013-18 distributed 7 kg of rice for BPL cardholders and the Bharatiya Janata Party which came to power in 2019 reduced rice from 7 kg to 5 kg.
“I asked then Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai not to reduce rice distributed to BPL cardholders but he did not lend heed to my pleas,” said Siddaramaiah and asked the gathering “Do you need such leaders?”
He questioned the gathering “Did BJP government when in power bring any programmes which match the programmes of the Congress party?” and criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi for emulating the 5-guarantees of Congress government in Karnataka and projecting “Modi’s guarantees” after initial opposition to the schemes announced by the Congress party.
He accused the Prime Minister for “robbing” the schemes of the Congress government and stated that Modi “robbed” the Congress schemes to garner votes of poor, dalits, minorities, women, labourers among others in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.
