Karnataka govt to provide additional 5 kgs of rice under Anna Bhagya scheme from Feb
Bengaluru, Feb 19 (PTI): The Karnataka government will begin providing an additional five kilograms of rice from February under the pre-poll Anna Bhagya guarantee, State Minister K H Muniyappa said on Wednesday.
The Congress government had promised to provide 10 kgs of rice every month to each member of families falling below the poverty line (BPL). This includes 5 kgs of rice supplied by the Centre under the National Food Security Act, 2013.
However, due to an inadequate supply of food grains, the state government had been transferring Rs 170 to beneficiaries' bank accounts in place of the additional rice, a practice that continued until January, according to the minister.
The Congress government had accused the Centre of attempting to sabotage the Anna Bhagya scheme by withholding rice, despite sufficient stocks being available in Food Corporation of India (FCI) warehouses.
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"From February, we will provide 5 kgs of rice per beneficiary every month instead of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT)," Muniyappa told reporters.
The minister stated that the state government would require 2.1 lakh tonne of rice each month, costing Rs 536.71 crore.
"We will procure rice from the FCI at Rs 22.5 per kg. We have discussed this with Union Food and Civil Supplies Minister Pralhad Joshi," Muniyappa said.
He added that Joshi had assured him that the Centre would supply rice consistently for the next two years.
According to Muniyappa, the Centre procures rice from various states at Rs 40 per kg, which includes transportation costs.
With the Centre agreeing to provide rice at Rs 22.5 per kg, the state government will save Rs 150 crore to Rs 190 crore, he said.
Anna Bhagya scheme was one of the five key poll promises made by the Congress ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections in May 2023.
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
