Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, were detained while protesting against the Karnataka government in Bengaluru on Tuesday. The BJP’s protest was planned to counter the Congress’ demonstration against the Centre for refusing to release rice to implement its Anna Bhagya scheme.
The state’s Anna Bhagya scheme offers 10 kg rice to each member of families living below the poverty line. However, the Centre recently discontinued the sale of rice and wheat from the central pool under the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) to state governments.The Congress in Karnataka had planned demonstrations on Tuesday across all district headquarters against the BJP-led Centre. Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, who is also the Congress state president, said on Monday the protest is against the Centre for “troubling the state government by denying rice”, PTI reported.
The Centre has decided to trouble us so that we cannot give rice to the poor people. We are not asking them to give us rice free of cost. There has been a system from the beginning. If there was rice in the central warehouses, it was given to those demanding it,” Shivakumar told reporters. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the state needs 2.28 lakh metric tonnes of rice to fulfill its “guarantee” scheme of 10 kg rice under the Anna Bhagya scheme.