By IANS
Raipur : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Chhattisgarh Wednesday launched a scheme to sell rice at Rs.3 per kg to 3.4 million poor families in the state. The opposition Congress party, however, dismissed the move as a gimmick to woo voters.
The scheme, with an annual outlay of Rs.8.37 billion, aims to sell 35 kg of rice to each of the targeted family every month through 10,400 outlets of the public distribution system.
BJP president Rajnath Singh unveiled the scheme at the state capital while Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the scheme at Ambikapur town.
Brainchild of Chief Minister Raman Singh, the scheme was launched simultaneously at 15 district towns.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Uttarakhand Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri besides Dattatreya Bandaru, Sushil Modi, Arjun Munda, Gopinath Munde, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Murli Manohar Joshi launched the scheme at different centres.
The cities – Raipur, Bilaspur, Korba, Durg, Ambikapur, Janjgir, Rajnandgaon, Raigarh, Baikunthpur, Dhamtari, Mahasamund, Kanker, Kawardha, Jashpur and Maoist-insurgency hit Dantewada – were smothered saffron with flags, banners and posters.
The main opposition Congress party described the scheme “a poll gimmick of the BJP aimed to get over the fast-sagging public image of the BJP government.”
“Smelling imminent defeat in upcoming assembly polls, this (BJP) government has launched ‘election rice’ scheme. The BJP can’t fool the public. If BJP was really serious, then why was it not launched during past four years of its rule,” said Congress spokesman Ramesh Varlyani.
The state is expected to go for assembly polls in November this year.