By Irudhaya Jothi
Konchowki, Aug 13, 2020: A network of NGOs engaged in monitoring the implementation of the National Food Security Act in West Bengal plans to move the Kolkata High Court against the alleged misappropriation of funds by various government agencies.
The NGOs, under the umbrella of Right To Food/Work Campaign West Bengal, met August 10-11 at Konchowki, some 25 km south of Kolkata, to review the situation, especially after Prime Minister Narendra Modi November 30 announced a 900-billion-rupee project to distribute free food grains to poor families until November 30.
The NGOs work with local civil society groups and trade unions in 17 Districts of the state’s 23 districts.
Their state level meeting has decided to organize a weeklong campaign in September to stop what it calls theft of food grains running into billions of rupees by government agencies.
A press release says the network will study the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the food situation in 3,000 poor families from September to November.
The network accuses state and federal governments of “sheer callousness and negligence” in tackling hunger during the pandemic time.
The federal government had started the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Anna Yojana (Prime Minister’s food project for the welfare of the poor) within days of the nationwide lockdown imposed March 25. It has reportedly saved an estimated 800 million poor from hunger during the four-phased lockdown.
However in West Bengal, the state and federal governments have shown “sheer callousness and negligence” in implementing the project that has pushed hundreds of thousands of people to starvation during the pandemic, the press release alleges.
The press note points out the theft of food has severely affected children, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
The Section 8 of the food security act promises allowance of cash and food grains in lieu of the Midday Meal Scheme that served hot cooked meal to children in schools and kindergartens before the lockdown.
“A closer look at scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) has shown that children and pregnant women were distributed only potatoes and rice after the lockdown,” says Anuradha Talwar of the Right to Food movement in West Bengal.
The press release says the public interest litigation the network plans to file in the high court in August will highlight the violation of food security act by various state and federal officials.
The September 7-13 statewide campaign aims to stop theft of food by these agencies, it adds.
The network will also undertake a study called “Hunger Watch” to gauge the impact of the pandemic on the food situation in 3,000 vulnerable households in West Bengal during September-November.
The press note finds a shortfall in the allotment of food grains and cash for mid-day meal scheme during the lockdown. “It is an alarming 17,000 ton food grains and 2.69 billion rupees in cash,” the NGOs allege.
The shortfall for kindergarten (anganwaris) amounted to 402,000 tons of pulses, more than 2,000 tons of food grains and hundreds of thousands of eggs.
At the state level, 42.48 million rupees “has been stolen from the rightful share of the ICDS beneficiaries up until now.”
The network also says they could not find any pregnant woman who has received 6,000 rupees monthly maternity benefit during the lockdown. “It is the right of every pregnant woman under the NFSA,” the press release asserts.
The state government has received from the federal government its share of funds under ICDS and mid-day meal scheme. However, the funds of at least 6.93 billion rupees have not reached mothers and children “in this time of hunger, unemployment and deprivation,” the network laments.
Talwar accuses the federal government of sitting “like a greedy monster on a huge pile of food grains” while people go hungry.