Puducherry CM accuses Home Ministry, Bedi of adopting "anti-people" stand on govt scheme

Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy on Saturday charged the Union Home Ministry and the territorial Lt Governor Kiran Bedi with adopting "anti-people and anti-Puducherry" stance in the implementation of his government's free rice scheme.

The Union Home Ministry had issued a directive that the cash equivalent of the quantum of rice alone should be paid to card-holders under direct benefit transfer (DBT) system through bank accounts.

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"We will challenge the directive of the Home Ministry in a court of law," he told reporters here.

The territorial administration had decided the cardholders belonging either to the BPL or APL families should be issued rice only and not cash.

"Our cabinet also decided only rice-ten kg for APL families and twenty kg- for BPL families every month should be distributed," he said.

The Lt Governor, however, took the stand that the cash equivalent of the quantum of rice alone should be paid under DBT system through bank accounts, he added.

The matter was referred by Bedi to the Home Ministry which had since come out with a circular to the territorial government supporting the Lt Governor's stand.

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"Both the Home Ministry and the Lt Governor are thus adopting an anti-people and anti-Puducherry stand differing

from the decision of the cabinet here that rice alone should be distributed and not the cash equivalent," he said.

He said the Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan had conceded the Puducherry government plea that rice alone should be distributed to card-holders.

"When Paswan gave the nod to our plea, the Home Minister and the Lt Governor are adopting a different stance which unleashes hardships to the families of the poor," he said.

The chief minister said he along with the Civil Supplies Minister M Kandasamy were planning to take legal recourse to challenge the Home Ministry's directions and also the Lt Governor's stand on the rice issue.

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"Neighbouring states like Andhra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are issuing rice only. But the Home Minister urges Puducherry government to adopt DBT system to operate the state government-sponsored Rs 180 crore free rice scheme," he lamented.