Rahul Gandhi slams government for allowing use of rice to make sanitiser

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday took a swipe at the government over reports that rice would be used to make sanitisers and asked the poor of the country as to when will they wake up.

He said while the poor are dying of hunger, the government was allowing rice to be used for making sanitisers.

"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," he said in a tweet in Hindi.

He attached a news report about government's decision to allow 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 at a meeting of the National Biofuel Coordination Committee (NBCC).