Under Anna Bhagya, Govt. starts giving cash for rice

Third of five guarantees fulfilled; 4.42 crore people from 1.25 cr. BPL families to be benefited

Bengaluru: As announced to give cash for additional five kg of rice under Anna Bhagya scheme, the State Government has transferred the benefit directly to the Bank accounts of beneficiaries.

With this, the State Government has fulfilled its third of the five pre-poll guarantees, after Shakti and Gruha Jyothi in the State.

Chief Minister Siddharamaiah, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, Food and Civil Supplies Minister K.H. Muniyappa, who interacted with the beneficiaries at the banquet hall of Vidhana Soudha yesterday, launched the process of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) yesterday.

Anna Bhagya, the ambitious scheme of the Government has completed 10 years. It was first announced by Siddharamaiah while assuming Office as the Chief Minister for the first term in the year 2013. Further to the scheme, apart from five kg rice provided to BPL card holders, every beneficiary will be getting monthly benefit of Rs.170 per head at the rate of Rs. 34 per kg of rice totalling 5 kg. If there are five members in the family, Rs. 850 will be transferred to the Bank account of the head of the family. Even if the family members exceed five, the Government has consented to provide the benefit on the basis of unit. This decision of the Government will benefit 4.42 crore persons of 1.27 crore BPL families.

Mysuru District has 7,11,722 Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and BPL card holders totalling 23 lakh beneficiaries. It includes 50,432 Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) cards with 2,17,199 beneficiaries and 6,61,290 BPL cards with 20,83,627 beneficiaries totalling 23,00,826 beneficiaries.

Varalakshmi, wife of Rajendra Raju of Hosa Bandikeri in Mysuru city is one among                               the beneficiaries.

Raju said “We are a three-member family including our son Kiran Raju. We received a message on our cellphone about Rs. 510 credited to our account. When cross checked with the fair price shop on sixth cross, it was confirmed that the amount credited is for 15 kg rice. The amount should be used to buy food grains only as announced by the Chief Minister.”