CM defends the move; BJP alleges govt reducing beneficiaries because of lack of funds- The Week

The Karnataka government’s efforts to weed out “bogus” BPL cards have caused panic among the people. While the opposition parties allege that paucity of funds due to the five guarantee schemes has compelled the ruling Congress to cancel the BPL cards, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah defended the move saying only the BPL cards of “ineligible” and “bogus” beneficiaries had been cancelled.

Karnataka, which claims to be one of the progressive states that contributes a large chunk of taxes to the central tax pool, has nearly 80 per cent of its population (of 6.5 crore) below the poverty line, going by the number of BPL cardholder families (4.5 crore) in the state.

“The Congress government is incurring huge costs due to the guarantee schemes. So, it has planned to cut down the BPL beneficiaries and has already cancelled 11 lakh BPL cards in the state,” alleged former minister and BJP MLA Sunil Kumar.

At many places, people who visited the ration shops run by the public distribution system to collect the monthly quota of free rice, were in for a shock as they were denied the food grains stating their BPL cards had been converted to APL cards. Some beneficiaries complained that their BPL cards had been wrongfully cancelled, while some said they were ready to give up the benefits under the guarantee scheme but needed the BPL card for other official purposes like availing subsidies in education, healthcare etc.

Food and Civil Supplies Minister K.H. Muniyappa, who held a review meeting last week, said the officials had noticed gross misuse of BPL cards by bogus beneficiaries and hence he had decided to weed out the “ineligible” persons.

“We will only convert these BPL cards (of ineligible beneficiaries) to APL cards. Karnataka has a staggering 4.5 crore BPL cardholders against the total population of 6.5 crore. Politics apart, we should know that 80 per cent of the state’s population has BPL cards. In other South Indian states, less than 50 per cent of the state’s population has BPL cards. Many in the state have availed BPL cards though they are not eligible for it. We are transferring the ineligible BPL cardholders to APL beneficiaries list,” said Muniyappa, adding that there was no dearth of funds for Anna Bhaghya scheme, which incurs a cost of Rs 650 crore every month and the scheme had an annual allocation of Rs 8,000 crore.

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It may be recalled that the Congress government, which came to power in May 2023 had announced Anna Bhagya scheme (free rice scheme) as one of its five poll guarantees and decided to provide ten kilos of rice to each BPL card beneficiary. However, it failed to procure enough rice from the Centre and decided to give Rs 170 per BPL card beneficiary along with the five kilos of rice each being provided by the Centre.

Siddaramaiah, who was annoyed with the opposition’s allegations, demanded to know which BJP-ruled state was providing free rice to BPL families. “Do taxpayers or government employees need a BPL card? We are only trying to cancel the BPL cards of those who are not genuine beneficiaries,” said the CM.

Meanwhile, Muniyappa clarified that the department would resume providing foodgrains to APL cardholders at subsidised rates after the PDS card revision is completed. The state has around 25.62 lakh APL cardholders at present and less than two lakh avail the subsidised foodgrains.

Interestingly, the previous BJP governments too had tried to “clean up” the bogus PDS cards to curb the misuse of BPL cards. However, the operation was discontinued following backlash from the people and vested interest groups.

Union minister Prahlad Joshi stated that the Centre had been spending Rs 2.11 lakh crore under the Food Security Act. “The Centre is providing free foodgrains to 50 per cent of urban and 75 per cent of rural population under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana. The state government which promised to provide 10 kilos of rice is giving only five kilos. It is cutting corners in the guarantee scheme and the schemes are not reaching all the beneficiaries,” said Joshi.

Meanwhile, a paper co-authored by Infosys char professor at ICRIER Ashok Gulati stated that nearly 28 per cent of foodgrains —20 million tonnes of rice and wheat—supplied by Food Corporation of India and state governments was not reaching the intended beneficiaries and the estimated loss to the exchequer was Rs 69,000 crore. So, plugging the leakage (through siphoning) in PDS, grain loss due to poor storage and weeding out bogus beneficiaries, especially the affording classes, could help make poverty alleviation more efficient and less of a burden on the exchequer.