Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pulled up Kamareddy District Collector Jitesh Patil over not displaying Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s photo at fair price ration shops.
She asked the official to explain about the Centre’s and the state share in the rice supplied through fair price shops (FPS).
Sitharaman, who was attending various programmes in Zaheerabad parliamentary constituency as part of BJP’s ‘Lok Sabha Pravas Yojana’, said the Centre bears a lion’s share in the subsidised rice which is being sold at Re 1 in the state to beneficiaries
While interacting with a few beneficiaries at an FPS in Biknoor, Sitharaman sought to know why the PM’s photo was not kept and said while the Centre’s contribution is Rs 29 per kg of ration rice, the state spends only Rs 4 while Re 1 is paid by the beneficiary.
She highlighted that, since March-April 2020, the Centre has been providing rice, priced at Rs 30-Rs 35, free of cost without the state government and the beneficiaries having to contribute anything.
At this stage, she asked the collector if he knew about the state and Centre’s share. When Patil said he had no clue, the minister shot back: “Find out and give me an answer (on share of both Centre and state government) within half an hour.”
“You think about it and within half an hour, again before my address to media (come up with an answer). So that I can tell them that even if the Collector could not answer my question immediately, he struggled and got the information,” she rebuked.
She alleged that when a request was earlier made to put up PM’s pictures also at the fair price shops in Telangana, it was not allowed. The BJP workers who came forward to put up the pictures were also not allowed, she claimed.
“I am telling you today. Our people will come and put up the PM’s banner here. You will, as the district administrator, ensure that it shall not be removed. That it shall not be torn,” she warned the Collector.
The Union minister’s directive to the collector, during her visit to Kamareddy district and Banswada constituency, however, did not go down well with the state government.
Finance minister T Harish Rao and assembly speaker Pocharam SrinivasReddy, who represents Banswada, reacted sharply to Sitharaman’s utterances and said she did not have any authority to direct the collector to carry the photos and flexis of the PM.
Harish Rao said: “How can the Union minister ask the collector to furnish details and carry Modi’s photo. She does not have any authority.”
