BJP's Ravikumar alleges Rs 120-cr scam in Karnataka's Anna Bhagya scheme

Bengaluru: BJP member N Ravikumar, on Monday, alleged in the Council that there was a Rs 120-crore scam in the Anna Bhagya scheme.

Raising the issue in the House, Ravikumar said two departments - school education & literacy and food & civil supplies were procuring rice for the schemes run by them at two different rates and this amounted to a scam worth Rs 120 crore.

As explained by Ravikumar, the food & civil supplies department is procuring rice for Anna Bhagya scheme at Rs 34.6 per kg, whereas the school education & literacy department is paying Rs 29.3 per kg for mid-day meals scheme.

“If the government says the rice supplied under Anna Bhagya scheme is of first quality and so, the price is high, then is it supplying poor quality rice for mid-day meals?” Ravikumar said.

In his reply, School Education and Literacy Minister Madhu Bangarappa said his department was also supplying fine quality rice for the mid-day meals scheme.

“The difference in prices does not mean that we are compromising on quality. The procurement system is different in the two departments. We are supplying fine quality rice and there is no doubt in that,” said the minister.

Food and Civil Supplies Minister K H Muniyappa pointed fingers at the union government for the higher price paid by his department. He said, “The union government is charging us high and causing a loss to the state. Though they are having stocks of two crore metric tonnes of rice, they are charging more.”