By IANS
Raipur : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Chhattisgarh Wednesday launched a food subsidy scheme to sell rice at Rs.3 per kg to 3.4 million poor families in the state.
While BJP president Rajnath Singh recommended that all BJP ruled states adopt this model of providing succour to the poor, the main opposition Congress party dismissed the scheme as a gimmick to woo voters before the elections.
The state will go to polls in November this year.
Brainchild of Chief Minister Raman Singh, 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.
The BJP president unveiled the scheme at the state capital while Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi launched the scheme at Ambikapur, the district headquarters of one of the most backward districts of the state, Surguja.
“The Chhattisgarh government has today created history as it took the bold initiative to feed the poor people by providing rice at an extremely nominal cost,” Rajnath Singh told a public meeting here.
Terming the food subsidy scheme an exemplary model to be imitated by others, Rajnath Singh told media persons at Raipur airport: “It would be nice if the other BJP-ruled states too implement the scheme”.
Three chief ministers of BJP ruled states – Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh, Vasundhara Raje of Rajasthan, and B.C. Khanduri of Uttarakhand – were also present in Chhattisgarh on this occasion.
Old timers in BJP like Dattatreya Bandaru, Sushil Modi, Arjun Munda, Gopinath Munde, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Murli Manohar Joshi also participated in unveiling of the scheme at various centres.
The scheme was launched simultaneously at 15 district towns – Raipur, Bilaspur, Korba, Durg, Ambikapur, Janjgir, Rajnandgaon, Raigarh, Baikunthpur, Dhamtari, Mahasamund, Kanker, Kawardha, Jashpur and Maoist-insurgency hit Dantewada – all smothered saffron with flags, banners and posters.
The BJP president also used the opportunity to attack the Congress party: “It is the Congress that has to be blamed for the country’s poverty. The party (Congress) ruled for most of the years after independence and did nothing to alleviate poverty”.
At a public gathering at Ambikapur, Modi also expressed similar sentiments: “Due to the flawed policies of the central government, the prices of essential commodities are sky-rocketing and even the government is forced to import wheat”.
The Congress party, however, scoffed at the scheme Wednesday terming it as an “election rice” scheme.
The main opposition party described the scheme “a poll gimmick of the BJP aimed to get over the fast-sagging public image of the BJP government”.
“Smelling an imminent defeat in upcoming assembly election, this (BJP) government has launched an election rice scheme. The BJP cannot fool the public. If it was really serious then why was it (the scheme) was not launched during the past four years of its rule,” asked Ramesh Varlyani, Congress party spokesman in the state.