Bengaluru, Jun 20 (IANS): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah stated on Tuesday that he is meeting President Droupadi Murmu and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on June 21 (Wednesday).

Speaking to reporters, Siddaramaiah maintained that the meetings with President Droupadi Murmu and Union Home Minister Amit Shah would be a courtesy call and he is meeting them for the first time after becoming the CM.

He further stated that he is also meeting Union Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Piyush Goyal and discuss the supply of rice to the state.

Talking about the implementation of Anna Bhagya scheme, Siddaramaiah stated that the implementation of the scheme could be delayed. The Congress had announced that it would be launched from July 1. BJP had announced that if the project is not delivered, they would stage agitation.

"The state government had spoken to the West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Punjab. 2.28 lakh metric tonne rice is available but West Bengal and Punjab are far away, so we have to consider transportation expenses. The option available is Chattisgarh. Here also transportation costs are becoming higher," Siddaramaiah explained.

"In the meanwhile, we are getting quotations from all three agencies of the central government - National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) and Central Bhandar," he said.

"We are facing a delay because, on June 9th we had written a letter to the FCI. On June 12, they committed to supplying rice. I spoke to the deputy manager of the FCI and he assured me the supply of rice and said seven lakh metric tonne rice is available in stock with the FCI," Siddaramaiah stated.

"The central government interfered and on June 13 FCI was asked not to provide rice and on June 14, the letter of refusal came to us. Is there any humanity with them? It is poor man's rice. In that also politics of hatred is carried out. Do they have any respect? This move is condemned and protests are staged in Karnataka. They (BJP) have done this with ill intention. The central government can't be a dictator in federal structure," the CM charged.