Centre refusing rice under OMSS to keep stocks, check price rise: Piyush Goyal

The Centre has refused to provide rice to several States from its stocks to ensure that the price of the grain does not increase in the open market and people continue to get it at affordable rates, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said

The Centre has refused to provide rice to several States from its stocks to ensure that the price of the grain does not increase in the open market and people continue to get it at affordable rates, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday (June 20), amid a political row over the refusal of rice supply to Karnataka.

A committee of secretaries decided that the stock of rice at central reserves be kept to "serve 140 crore people of the country" and States can purchase the rice from the market if they need, the Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution told reporters at the BJP headquarters when asked for his comment on protests in Karnataka over the supply of rice.

The politics over the supply of rice to Karnataka heated up on Tuesday (June 20) with the ruling Congress and the Opposition BJP staging demonstrations in various parts of the State.

The Congress staged protests in all district headquarters of the State against the BJP-led Centre for allegedly denying rice for the Karnataka government's Anna Bhagya scheme.

On the other hand, several BJP leaders including former CM Basavaraj Bommai were detained while holding protests in some parts of the State against the Congress government's alleged failure to provide 10 kg rice to each member of the BPL family.

The Centre said it cannot provide the additional five kg though Karnataka said it was ready to buy it from the central institutions such as Food Corporation of India, Central Warehousing Corporation and NAFED.

Recently, the Union government discontinued the sale of rice and wheat from the central pool under the open market sale scheme (OMSS) to State governments.