Naveen playing "dirty" politics with cheap rice scheme-Jena
Bhubaneswar, Aug 08 (UNI) Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Srikant Jena today accused Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik of playing a ''dirty politics'' by taking all credit in the supply of rice at Rs two per kg to BPL card holders in Orissa.
In an open letter to the Chief Minister, Mr Jena warned the BJD-BJP alliance government, led by Mr Naveen Patnaik, not to play politics with the problems of the poor and take political mileage out of it.
The Congress leader said the state government should not take credit for the rice at Rs two per kg as a major portion of scheme was actually borne by the Union government.
He said while the Union government was providing subsidy to the tune of Rs eleven per kg of rice supplied by the FCI, the state government was only contributing Rs three per kg to make available the rice at Rs two per kg to the BPL families in the state.
The state government, he said, had taken the credit as if it was supplying rice to the 60 lakh BPL card holders at Rs two per kg.
Mr Jena clarified that the Union government was buying rice at Rs 16 per kg from the Food Corporation of India and providing to the BPL families at Rs 5.56, Anrnapurna Yojana beneficiary at Rs three per kg and free rice to the beneficiaries of Antatodaya scheme.
The UPA government at the Centre had provided a subsidy of Rs 8,000 crore to the state during the past four years at the rate of Rs 2,000 crore per year, Mr Jena claimed and demanded the Chief Minister to present the real facts before the people.
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