Centre turns down request to supply rice for state scheme citing lack of stock: KH Muniyappa
New Delhi, Jun 23: Union Minister Piyush Goyal has turned down the Karnataka government's request to supply rice for implementation of a poll promise of free rice distribution citing a lack of stock, state Food Minister K H Muniyappa said on Friday.
After meeting Union Food Minister Piyush Goyal, Muniyappa said, "The state government has announced 10 kg of free rice. For that purpose, we requested for rice. We are ready to pay the price. But the Minister has said there is no stock and unable to give.
Muniyappa informed in the meeting that there is enough rice stock in the central pool. Against the buffer stock of 135 lakh tonnes of rice, the central pool has 262 lakh tonnes.
"We requested rice for BPL cardholders. He (Goyal) said it is not possible to give. It is politically motivated. The minister is not willing to give even though the rice is available," he told reporters.
Therefore, the state government has identified central agencies like Nafed, Kendriya Bhandar and NCCF to procure rice for the state scheme "Anna Bhagya", he said, and added that the government will fulfil its commitment and distribute free rice to the poor as early as possible.
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There are more than 1.19 crore BPL cardholders and 4.42 crore beneficiaries in Karnataka, he added.
Karnataka and other states which are operating their own state schemes are hit hard after the central government on June 13 discontinued sale of rice under the open market sale scheme (OMSS) to state governments due to inflationary pressure.
In a representation submitted to Goyal, Muniyappa said the Karnataka government has been making use of the OMSS scheme for sourcing rice for state cards that are sanctioned over and above the cards under National Food Security Act (NFSA) and for given one kg of rice as additional entitlement to all ration cardholder for the last seven months.
The state government requires 2.29 lakh tonnes of rice per month for distribution of an additional 5 kg of rice to all beneficiaries of NFSA and state cardholders, he said.
"The sudden discontinuation of OMSS took away the possibility of getting rice from FCI for this state scheme unexpectedly. It is not only difficult to launch the new programme of giving additional 5 kg rice per member per month, but also stopped regular monthly entitlement of foodgrains of 39 lakh beneficiaries of state ration holders," he said.
As kharif procurement season is over in most parts of the country, the state's efforts to source rice from other states or from open market is becoming "challenging," he said.
It may be noted that the Centre is supplying monthly 5 kg free rice per beneficiary under the NFSA at present. Over and above this, the Karnataka government will supply additional 5 kg of free rice.
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
