Date:27/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/27/stories/2008042755660700.htm

New Delhi

New foodgrains scheme for poor launched

Staff Correspondent

BPL families to get wheat at Rs. 3 and rice at Rs. 4.50 per kg every month

Photo: A.M. Faruqui

Welcome initiative: BJP vice-president in charge of Madhya Pradesh M. Venkaiah Naidu (centre) along with State Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan (second from left) distributing a kit of subsidised foodgrains to a beneficiary during the launching of ‘Mukhya Mantri Annapurna Yojna’ in Bhopal on Saturday.

BHOPAL: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader M. Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated the ambitious Mukhya Mantri Annapurna Yojna at a huge consumer awareness camp organised here on Saturday.

Under this scheme, below poverty line (BPL) families would get wheat at Rs.3 per kg and rice at Rs.4.50 per kg. Each BPL family would get 20 kg of foodgrains every month.

‘Blessing for people’

Mr. Naidu said the Annapurna Yojna was an important scheme that came as a blessing for the people, who are now confronted with the menace of price rise. He said other States should also introduce such a scheme for the welfare of the poor.

Describing Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan as a representative of the common man, Mr. Naidu said he had paved the way for improving the lot of the farmers by announcing an additional bonus of Rs. 100 for wheat procurement.

Praise for Govt.

The BJP leader also had a word of praise for the State Government for introducing schemes like Mukhya Mantri Kanyadan Yojna, Mukhya Mantri Majdoor Suraksha Yojna and the overall progress made on the health, irrigation and power fronts.

Mr. Naidu accused the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre of discriminating against Madhya Pradesh and said equal justice was done with every State when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister. He said no one is happy with the faulty policies of the present government at the Centre.

Power crisis

He also accused the UPA Government of aggravating the power crisis by reducing the allotment of coal for thermal power plants in the State. He said matters had reached such a pass that the Chief Minister was even being forced to sit on fast on April 30 to register his protest against the Centre’s “wrong policies”.

The Chief Minister said on the occasion that he is in politics to serve the public cause. “The Annapurna Yojna is being launched to free the poor from the scourge of hunger,” he said. Prominent among those present on the occasion were former Chief Minister and M.P., Kailash Joshi, State BJP president Narendra Singh Tomar and State Ministers Babulal Gaur, Gauri Shankar Shejwar, Kusum Mehdele, Kamal Patel and Narottam Mishra.