Dr.Thomas (Special Correspondent)
C
hief Minister Siddaramaiah said that he was confident about the win of all three Congress candidates, Jagadeesh Shettar, NS Bosaraju and Thippannappa Kamakanur,who filed their nomination for the election of the Legislative Council.
He was speaking to the media after filing nomination of candidates for the Legislative Council elections here today.
Delhi Tour: Courtesy call with President and Union Ministers:
CM said that he will be meeting the President and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi tomorrow,and Food Minister KH Muniyappa will meet the Union Food Minister and appeal for the supply of rice.
Procurement of rice:
The CM explained that the State Government had held talks with West Bengal,Andhra Pradesh,Telangana and Chhattisgarh states regarding procurement of rice.
The state needs 2,28,000 metric tonnes of rice.If rice is purchased from Chhattisgarh,price of rice including transportation charges will be high compared to FCI price.
Telangana has informed about the unavailability of rice and our officials are discussing with Andhra Pradesh. Quotations are called from NCCF, NAFED and Kendriya Bhandar for purchase of rice.
A letter was written to FCI on June 9 regarding the purchase of rice,and on June 12,FCI assured for the supply as they had 7 lakh metric tonnes of rice in stock.
Anti Poor Action
We also spoke to the deputy manager of FCI and assured to provide the required rice.Later,the Food and Civil Supplies Department of the Central Government intervened and wrote a letter to FCI on June 13, which stated that the supply of rice to the states has been discontinued.
Then FCI in turn,wrote us a letter that rice cannot be provided.The Chief Minister asked ‘Is this not hate politics and an anti-poor move’?
Rice will be provided at any cost
Do these people who practice hate politics have any humanity? The CM questioned.Our party has protested everywhere condemning this move of the Centre.
Centre is not giving this additional rice for free,we pay money for the Rice.Prime Minister Narendra Modi repeatedly states that we are in a cooperative federalism.
But is this called cooperative Federalism?,CM asked. BJP government is not a dictator Government.This is a democratic system,we have a federal structure.
Does the central government itself grow rice?
They avail rice from wherever paddy is grown in the States.Central Government has conveniently forgotten that National Food Security Act was implemented by the then UPA government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.5 kG rice is continued because of that, CM said.
