Karnataka Cabinet modifies 'Anna Bhagya' scheme, will provide Indira Kit in lieu of 5 kg rice

Bengaluru: In an alteration to the Anna Bhagya scheme — one of the five flagship guarantees of the ruling Congress government — the Cabinet decided on Thursday to provide 5kg rice and an Indira kit (1 kg green gram, 1 kg toor dal, 1 kg sugar, 1 kg salt and 1 kg cooking oil) to BPL cardholders.

Addressing a news conference after the Cabinet meeting, Food and Civil Supplies Minister K H Muniyappa said: “We have been giving 10 kg rice. But later, we did a survey, where we found that 10 kg rice was being misused a bit. After that, we conducted a survey, where 90% of the customers preferred dal, sugar, cooking oil, sugar and salt. We discussed this with the CM, who agreed.”

Currently, the Union government is providing 5 kg rice, while the state government is providing another 5 kg rice.

Muniyappa noted that there are 1.26 crore BPL families in the state (4.48 crore beneficiaries). The government has decided to provide the Indira Kit based on the size of the family.

For ration cardholders whose families have 1-2 members (32.56 lakh families), the quantity will be halved, while for ration cardholding families with 3-4 members (63 lakh families), the proposed quantity will be provided. For families with 5 or more people (30 lakh families), one-and-a-half times the quantity will be provided.

As per a document by the Food and Civil Supplies Department, Rs 6,426 crore per year on the additional five kg rice. The proposed Indira kit will bring down the expenditure to Rs 6,119 crore. Thus, the government will now save Rs 306.48 crore per month.

Other decisions

The Cabinet approved Rs 38.33 crore to adopt new technology to renovate the State Data Centre (SDC) and increase cyber security. It was also decided to procure the Inter-Operable Criminal Justice System 2.0 (ICJS – 2.0) at a cost of Rs 89.22 crore.

The tenure of the 5th state planning commission has been extended. The Cabinet approved the Labour Department’s proposal to build 11 shramik residential schools at a cost of Rs 405.55 crore for children of workers registered under the Karnataka Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board.