Anna Bhagya: 5 kg extra food per person in Karnataka

Do this now. Take out your Karnataka ration card and look at the category printed on it. If it says PHH or BPL or Antyodaya, every member of your family is entitled to the Anna Bhagya benefit on top of the central ration. Then go to your assigned Fair Price Shop with the Aadhaar of each member and collect this month's entitlement, or check what has been credited to the woman head of the family at ahara.karnataka.gov.in. There is no separate form to fill. The benefit is linked to the ration card you already hold. If the shop refuses your full quota, the grievance and RTI steps further down this page are what move the file.

The core promise is simple to state. Under the National Food Security Act, every eligible person in a Priority Household or Antyodaya family already receives 5 kg of free foodgrain a month from the central pool. Anna Bhagya is the Karnataka state top-up that adds another 5 kg of free food per person on top of that. A family of four therefore has a claim to 20 kg from the central quota plus another 20 kg from the state, a meaningful cushion for a low-income household running a monthly kitchen on a tight budget.

Anna Bhagya first came in 2013 under the Government of Karnataka led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, then providing subsidised rice to poor families. The Congress government that returned to office in 2023 made the expanded version one of its main guarantees, pledging the extra 5 kg per person that takes each eligible individual to a total of 10 kg a month. The scheme is run by the state Food and Civil Supplies Department, not by the Union government, and the extra 5 kg is paid for from the Karnataka budget.

This is the part that has changed more than once, so read it with care rather than assuming an old figure still holds.

When the expanded guarantee started on 1 July 2023, the state could not buy enough rice in the open market to hand over the extra 5 kg in kind. As a stop-gap it paid cash in lieu, worked out at about Rs 34 per kg, which came to roughly Rs 170 per person per month. That money was sent by direct bank transfer to the account of the woman head of each eligible family. For a family of four this meant close to Rs 680 a month while the rice supply problem lasted.

From early 2025 the position changed again. After the Food Corporation of India agreed to supply rice to the state, Karnataka restarted handing over the full extra 5 kg as actual grain through Fair Price Shops, so eligible people were once more collecting the whole 10 kg a month in kind rather than getting cash.

In the 2026-27 state budget the government announced a further shift. The plan is to replace the additional 5 kg of rice with an Indira Food Kit, reported to contain pulses such as tur dal along with cooking oil, sugar and salt, so that families get a broader nutrition basket instead of rice alone and less grain leaks into resale. This kit is being rolled out in phases through the same ration shops. Because the changeover is still in progress, the exact form of your extra entitlement in a given month, whether rice, a food kit, or cash where a shop cannot supply, is best confirmed for your area on the official portal before you visit. What stays constant across all these forms is the entitlement itself, an extra 5 kg of free food value per person for eligible cardholders.

• A family that holds a valid Karnataka BPL or Priority Household ration card, or an Antyodaya Anna Yojana card for the poorest households.
• Every named member on that card counts, so the benefit scales with family size.
• The card must be seeded with the Aadhaar of each member, and collection at the shop uses biometric or OTP verification on the ePoS machine.
• Families holding an APL card outside the priority list are not covered for the Anna Bhagya top-up.

You do not apply for Anna Bhagya on its own. Eligibility flows entirely from your ration card category, so the real task for a new family is to hold or upgrade to a valid BPL or Antyodaya card in the first place.

Think of a household in a small Karnataka town where the husband loads goods on a tempo and the wife works as a house help. They hold a BPL card for the two of them and their two children. Before the state top-up, their free ration was the central 5 kg per head, 20 kg for the family, which ran out well before month end and pushed them to buy rice at market rates on borrowed money.

After Anna Bhagya, the same family has a claim to a second 5 kg per head from the state. In the cash-in-lieu months that meant an extra sum reaching the wife's bank account, money she could spend on rice or on dal and oil as the household needed. In the months of full grain supply it meant a second sack of rice from the shop. As the Indira Food Kit rolls out, it means rice plus a kit of dal, oil, sugar and salt. In each version the direction is the same, more food security for the same card, and the wife as the named recipient has a clearer view of what the family is owed.

1. Confirm your card category. Check that your ration card reads PHH, BPL or Antyodaya. If you hold an APL card and your income has fallen, apply to move to the priority list at your taluk food office or through Karnataka One.
2. Seed Aadhaar for every member. Make sure each person named on the card has Aadhaar linked, since collection depends on biometric or OTP verification.
3. Visit your assigned Fair Price Shop. Anna Bhagya is tied to one shop mapped to your card. Carry the card and be ready for the fingerprint or OTP check on the ePoS device.
4. Collect the month's entitlement. Take the central 5 kg per head plus the state top-up in whatever form applies that month, rice or the Indira Food Kit, and keep the printed slip.
5. Check the bank account for any cash credit. Where the top-up is paid as cash in lieu, it reaches the woman head of the family by bank transfer, so track that account and the entries on ahara.karnataka.gov.in.

• The shop gives less than your full quota. Note the date, the exact quantity given, and the dealer name. Raise it with the Food Inspector or Tahsildar, and use the RTI route below if there is no written answer.
• Biometric verification keeps failing. Worn fingerprints are common among manual workers. Ask the dealer to use the Aadhaar OTP option or the nominee and exception process instead of being turned away.
• A new family member is not on the card. Add the member through your taluk food office so the per-head entitlement counts them, otherwise the shop pays only for listed members.
• Cash in lieu did not reach the bank. Confirm the account is Aadhaar-seeded and correctly linked to the card, then check the entitlement history on the portal and raise a grievance if a credit is missing.
• Your card was cancelled or shows inactive. Cards are sometimes deactivated in cleanup drives. Visit the food office with proof of residence and income to restore or reissue it.

• Official portal: ahara.karnataka.gov.in for entitlement, transactions and grievances
• Food and Civil Supplies helpline: 1967 (toll-free, listed on the Ahara portal)

When a grievance call leads nowhere, a written Right to Information request to the Food and Civil Supplies Department often moves a stuck file, because the public authority then has to answer in writing or explain the delay. Ask narrow, factual questions about the status of your card, the entitlement recorded against it, and the officer handling your case. Most stuck cases get a clear reply within the statutory 30 days.

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• Full filing and appeal process: The RTI Playbook

Anna Bhagya was launched in 2013 by the Government of Karnataka under Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and expanded in 2023 as a flagship state guarantee, funded from the Karnataka budget and run by the state Food and Civil Supplies Department. It is a Karnataka scheme, distinct from the central National Food Security Act ration that it sits on top of. You can see it beside every other state and central welfare scheme on the Sarkari Yojana index 2014 to 2026.

Yes. The extra 5 kg per person under Anna Bhagya is free, as is the central 5 kg under NFSA. During the supply shortage the state paid its share as cash of about Rs 170 per person instead, which was also free money to the family.

The total entitlement is 10 kg of free food per person, 5 kg central and 5 kg state. The state half has been paid as rice, at times as cash, and is now moving to the Indira Food Kit of dal, oil, sugar and salt, so confirm the current form for your area on the portal.

Where the state pays cash instead of grain, it goes by direct bank transfer to the woman recorded as the head of the family, so keep that account Aadhaar-seeded and active.

No. It is linked to your existing BPL or Antyodaya ration card. The real step for a new family is to hold or upgrade to a valid priority card.

Only priority and Antyodaya cardholders are covered. If your card is moved to APL, the Anna Bhagya top-up stops, though the shop must tell you the reason in writing.

It is the state top-up in the form of a nutrition kit, reported to include pulses, cooking oil, sugar and salt, that Karnataka is rolling out in place of the extra 5 kg of rice under the 2026-27 budget.

• NFSA ration card and free foodgrain
• Gruha Lakshmi cash for women heads in Karnataka
• Amma and Annapurna canteens for cheap meals
• Ujjwala free LPG connection for poor women
• Matru Vandana maternity benefit
• Kalaignar Magalir women income support in Tamil Nadu
• Lakshmi Bhandar cash support for women
• e-Shram card for unorganised workers

• Government of Karnataka, Food and Civil Supplies Department portal: ahara.karnataka.gov.in
• The News Minute, Karnataka to provide 10 kg rice instead of cash under Anna Bhagya, 2025
• The South First, FCI agrees to supply rice for Anna Bhagya, 2024
• Deccan Herald, Karnataka plans Indira Food Kits to replace extra rice under Anna Bhagya, 2025-2026
• Karnataka Budget 2026-27, Indira Food Kits to replace the additional 5 kg rice (The Hindu, 9 October 2025)
• Helpline: 1967, Food and Civil Supplies Department

Last reviewed: 1 September 2026.

Written by Dr. Shrawan Kumar Pathak.