Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday took a swipe at the Centre over reports that rice would be used to make sanitisers saying that the Government was mulling such a move when the poor are dying of hunger.

He further asked the poor of the country as to when will they wake up.

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In a tweet in Hindi, the Congress leader said while the poor are dying of hunger, the government was allowing rice to be used for making sanitisers for the rich.

The Central government on Monday said the excess rice produced in the country will be used to manufacture ethanol to keep up the supply of hand sanitisers.

“A meeting of NBCC was held today under the Chairmanship of the Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, wherein it was approved that the surplus rice available with Food Corporation of India (FCI) may be converted to ethanol for utilization in making alcohol-based hand sanitisers and in blending for Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme,” Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said.

However, the move comes amid the lockdown which has left millions of migrant labourers and daily wage labourers with no job and food to survive.

However, in the press note, the government defended its decision by quoting the National Policy on Biofuels, 2018, which allows conversion of surplus foodgrain to ethanol.

According to the National Policy on Biofuels, “During an agriculture crop year when there is projected oversupply of food grains as anticipated by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, the policy will allow conversion of these surplus quantities of food grains to ethanol, based on the approval of National Biofuel Coordination Committee.”

The criticism comes days after Rahul Gandhi last week silenced party critics on “criticism of the Government” saying that while he disagreed with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on various issues, this was not the time to engage in blame-game but make constructive suggestions to the government.

“I don’t want to get involved in ‘Tu Tu Main Main’ (blame game) as the country is fighting a tough battle against the virus and we will only be successful to contain it when everybody works together.”

“There should be no declaration of victory, it is a long fight. I disagree with PM Modi on a lot of issues but we have to unite and not fight. We have to defeat the virus together,” said Rahul Gandhi.