The main Opposition Congress on Thursday alleged that the BJD Government was involved in a scam worth Rs29,000 crore in reducing the BPl rice by 10 kg per household from the Central allocation of 35 kg.
However, Food and Consumer Welfare Minister Pratap Kishore Deb, rubbishing the allegation, said, “It was nothing but a political ploy of the Congress ahead of the 2014 general elections to defame the popular BJD Government.”
Asserting that there have been no irregularities or corruption in the distribution of the BPl rice, Deb said that in view of the reduced allocation by the Centre, the State Government took the decision basing on a Cabinet decision on August 28, 2002 to scale down the entitlement of BPl rice to accommodate all the eligible and left out BPl families who were identified through a door to door survey in 1997.
Replying to a marathon debate lingering over four hours on an adjournment notice on the reduced allocation of rice to the BPl families by the State Government in violation of the Central Government’s control order, Deb accused the Union Government, particularly the Planning Commission of creating confusion over poverty estimate and delay in giving guidelines to identify the BPl families.
Since the Union Government unilaterally made a cut in the BPl list of the State and reduced the allocation of food grains, the Odisha Government had to distribute 25 kg of subsidised rice per month among the BPl families instead of 35 kg. The step was taken to ensure Right to Food and food security among the poor families of the State, he asserted.
He regretted that the Union Government was allocating BPl rice for 27.26 lakh beneficiaries, including 5.41 lakh APl families of KBK districts against a total of BPl and APl card holders and the beneficiaries of Annapurna and Antodaya Yajana of 42.32 lakh.