Bengaluru, Oct 16 (IANS) Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Thursday that he knows the pain of hunger and the value of food, and therefore had introduced the Anna Bhagya scheme

He was speaking after inaugurating the World Food Day programme organised by the Department of Food and Civil Supplies at the Banquet Hall in Vidhana Soudha, Bengaluru.

“I know the suffering of hunger and the value of food. That is why I introduced the Anna Bhagya scheme…Famous Kannada poet D.R. Bendre called farmers ‘Anna Brahma (God of Food)’. Hence, wasting or throwing away food is an insult to Anna Brahma,” he said.

“There was a time when we depended on America for food grains. Today, we have progressed to the level of exporting food to foreign countries. But alongside this achievement, the amount of food waste has also increased, which is distressing,” he remarked.

The CM said that in Bengaluru alone, 943 tonnes of food is wasted every year, which is worth around Rs 360 crore, citing a study by the University of Agricultural Sciences (GKVK).

“Knowingly wasting food is arrogance against food itself … Wasting food is a sinful act,” he recalled Mahatma Gandhi’s words.

“It is Congress’ commitment that no one should go to bed hungry. That is why we have implemented pro-poor programmes. It was Congress Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who introduced the Food Security Act. The BJP strongly opposed the Act. BJP’s ideology is anti-poor. People must understand this. Don’t clap for the BJP on one side, and for Congress’ pro-poor programmes on the other side. Understand that it is Congress which is committed to ensuring food security,” he appealed.

“Strict action will be taken against those who hoard Anna Bhagya rice and sell it in the black market. To prevent such practices, we have decided to distribute 5 kg of rice along with an additional 5 kg of pulses and grains,” the Chief Minister announced.

“Awareness about food and protection of small farmers is the responsibility of the government, society, and every citizen,” he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar stated, “Earlier, for the free gas scheme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s photo used to be displayed in front of all petrol pumps. Now, that has been stopped. The price of cooking gas, which was Rs 400, has gone up to Rs 1,100. Prices of everything have skyrocketed while incomes have plummeted.”

“To address this, we have implemented the guarantee schemes. We allocate Rs 53,000 crore every year for this. Even if prime ministers and other leaders criticise our schemes, in the end, they copy them to retain their political positions. In Bihar, even before elections were announced, Rs 10,000 was deposited into the accounts of women in the state. This shows that people’s basic food needs are extremely important,” he said.

He said that we are among the few countries in Asia and the world where people eat freshly cooked hot meals. “In most Western countries, people rely on junk food, bread, and fast food. Our country has achieved self-sufficiency in food production and has the capacity to export abroad. We produce more milk than Gujarat. The programmes of our government are people-centric and have become models for the nation,” he added.

In 2013, then-Chief Minister Siddaramaiah launched the “Anna Bhagya” scheme in Karnataka to provide subsidised rice to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. It was a key promise made by the Congress party during its election campaign that year. The initial offer provided 30 kilograms of rice per household for just Rs one per kilogram.

The Congress-led government, after coming to power in 2023, announced free 10 kilograms of rice for all members of BPL families in the state under the Anna Bhagya free rice scheme.

However, considering the misuse of rice being supplied to beneficiaries of the public distribution system (PDS) and to ensure better diversity in consumption, the Karnataka government recently decided to provide “Indira food kit” to about 1.26 crore households in the state instead of the 5 kilograms of rice being provided under the Anna Bhagya scheme currently.

–IANS

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