[Reader-list] Reg: Right to Food - Set 1 - Re-entry

[Rajkamal Goswami]

Dear All

http://rkgoswami.blogspot.com/


tell me what you think about it.

On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 2:00 PM, Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com> wrote:

> Article 5:
>
> Link:
> http://www.telegraphindia.com/1061101/asp/northeast/story_6942356.asp
>
> Article:
>
> Dispur has let poor down: apex court
> P. BRAHMA CHOUDHURY
>
> *Kokrajhar, Oct. 31:* The Supreme Court has found Dispur guilty of denying
> basic rights to the poorest of the poor, exposing in the process the
> hollowness of the ruling Congress’s *garibi hatao *slogan.
>
> In a letter to chief secretary S. Kabilan, the Supreme Court’s special
> commissioner Harsh Mander and commissioner N.C. Saxena have pointed out
> Dispur’s failure to address the issues of food security, right to food and
> right to work.
>
> The letter dated October 20 — The Telegraph has a copy — states that Assam
> has been ignoring directives from the Supreme Court on implementing schemes
> for the poor.
>
> “Based on our sixth report submitted to the Supreme Court in December 2005,
> following issues have emerged with regard to the state of Assam, which
> demands immediate intervention by the state government. Many of the Supreme
> Court orders are not complied with in the state, which essentially means
> denial of their basic rights to the poorest,” the letter says.
>
> The missive from the Supreme Court mentions lacunae in the implementation
> of
> centrally-sponsored programmes like the Integrated Child Development
> Services, the midday meal scheme, Sampoorn Grameen Rozgar Yojana, National
> Social Assistance Programme and Annapurna, national maternity benefit
> schemes and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
>
> Quoting from an annual report of the department of women and child
> development, the letter says only 24 per cent of the sanctioned *Anganwadis
> *are operational in Assam. “This is a grave violation of the Supreme Court
> order dated 29.04.04, which clearly stated that all the sanctioned AWCs
> were
> to be made fully operational by 30.04.04.”
>
> The letter also states that since January 2005, cooked meals under the
> midday meal scheme have been provided to students in schools of Dhubri for
> merely 15 days and only two days each in Udalguri and Darrang districts.
> The
> programme has not been implemented in Chirang and Bongaigaon at all.
>
> “In the districts of Bongaigaon and Chirang, teachers have been officially
> told to sell three days worth of rations every month in order to pay the
> cooking staff,” the letter points out. “Although it is astounding that as
> per the Food Grain Bulletin of the ministry of food and public
> distribution,
> the rice allocated to Assam for midday meal scheme was 101.63 thousand
> tonnes and the offtake was as high as 87.28 thousand tonnes, thereby
> indicating 86 per cent offtake of grains for the schemes in the year
> 2004-05… implementation of the scheme in the state leaves gaps that need
> explanation.”
>
> Kabilan said the state planning and development department had begun
> implementing remedial steps.
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-- 
Rajkamal