Bengaluru, Jun 19 (IANS): When BJP and Congress are engaged in a war of words over the implementation of free rice scheme and alleged refusal of the Central government to sell rice to Karnataka, Karnataka AAP unit stated that Punjab is ready to help in this regard.

Talking to reporters on Monday, the state president of the party, Prithvi Reddy, said that the Aam Aadmi Party-ruled Punjab state government will provide complete support to overcome the problem of rice shortage in the state.

"Congress party in the state has come to power today without any prior preparations, completely copying the programmes of Aam Aadmi Party and announcing many hasty guarantees for vote bank politics. We will not engage in any political hypocrisy in this situation where the poor people of the state are in trouble due to these half-baked guarantees."

Now the poor people of the state are in trouble. The aim of our party is to alleviate the suffering. In my conversation with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann yesterday, the Chief Minister said that he is ready to give a full helping hand in principle. We are ready to provide complete technical support required by the Chief Minister of the state to hold talks with the Punjab Chief Minister immediately," said Prithvi Reddy.

Speaking at the same occasion, Prithvi Reddy condemned the attitude of the BJP government at the Centre as anti-poor and sad. A letter has already been written to the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and Chief Secretary of the state. Prithvi Reddy has urged the government to get surplus rice from the Punjab government to solve the problem.

Commenting on this, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday stated that his government would hold another round of talks with the Punjab. He maintained that Punjab had earlier told Karnataka that rice was not available.