Bhubaneswar: After a few months’ lull, politics over ‘cheap rice scheme’ in the state has boiled up with BJP leader and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar firing a fresh salvo at the BJD government over the issue Thursday.
Accusing the BJD government of hijacking Central schemes, the Union Human Resource Development Minister, who is on a two- day visit to the state, alleged that the BJD government in the state is rebranding the Central schemes and propagating them before public as its own.
Citing an example, the minister said, “The Rs 1 rice scheme implemented in the state by Naveen government is a scheme of Modi government. While Centre contributes Rs 27, state contributes only Rs 2 and claims it to be its own scheme. People are well aware of it.”
Alleging that the BJD government is ‘incapable,’ he said that despite having great potential Orissa is lagging behind other states in terms of development.
On the other hand, the ruling dispensation in the state took no time to hit back and said that it was the Naveen Patnaik government which launched cheap rice (Rs 2per kg) scheme initially in 2008. Ridiculing Javadekar’s comment, the BJD also wanted to know why the BJP, while in opposition, had opposed the National Food Security Act.
“His (Javadekar’s) claim is absurd. It was our government which implemented the scheme much before the implementation of the NFSA in 2013. In 2008, when the BJD launched the subsidised rice scheme, neither BJP was in power nor Javadekar was a minister. Rather, they (BJP) used to oppose the Food for Security Act,” said BJD Rajyasabha MP and spokesperson Pratap Keshari Deb. He further accused the BJP of playing ‘petty politics’ over this scheme.
BJD vice-president and Minister Damodar Rout also lambasted the BJP stating that “if the BJD government was incapable, then how come the Union government has given us various prizes and recognitions as best performing state in various fields including agriculture?”
Meanwhile, leader of Opposition from Congress Narasingha Mishra blasted both BJD and BJP for playing politics over “Rs 1 rice scheme” and said that the scheme is not a ‘paternal property’ of any government.
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