'Cleaning hands of rich': Rahul blasts govt for using rice in sanitisers

The government is "cleaning the hands of the rich" and hurting the poor by allowing surplus rice to be used for making sanitisers, said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday.

The government on Monday allowed surplus rice, available with the Food Corporation of India (FCI), to be used for ethanol, which will be then in making alcohol-based hand sanitisers and blending in petrol. The government is saddled with huge rice stoc , excluding the 19.23 mt of unmilled paddy lying with millers on behalf of FCI

"After all, when will India's poor wake up? You are dying of hunger and they are busy cleaning the hands of the rich by making sanitizers from your portion of rice," said Gandhi on Twitter.

He attached a news report about the government's decision to allow the use of surplus rice for manufacturing sanitisers in the country. The government on Monday approved that surplus rice available with Food Corporation of India (FCI) can be converted into ethanol in order to manufacture alcohol-based hand sanitisers and also for blending with petrol.
 

The decision was taken by a group of experts under the National Biofuel Coordination Committee (NBCC), chaired by Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, on Monday. The National Policy on Biofuels, 2018, states that during an agriculture crop year when there is projected oversupply of food grains as anticipated by the ministry of agriculture and farmer's welfare, the policy will allow the conversion of these surplus quantities of food grains to ethanol.

At present, the government is saddled with huge rice stock from previous years. The stock does not include the 19.23 mt of unmilled paddy lying with millers on behalf of FCI.

On March 26, the government had decided to give 5 kg wheat or rice and 1 kg of preferred pulses free of cost to 800 million people, under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

Meanwhile, the Congress is upbeat after making the government see the wisdom in implementing some of its suggestions, and is hopeful that in the weeks to come, it would follow up on several more of its recommendations. In the past couple of days, the Centre has heeded Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s (pictured) advice about protecting strategic companies of the country from hostile takeovers by those in neighbouring countries.