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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | While India Hankers For Global High Table, Many Struggle For A Decent Meal -Jyoti Malhotra

While India Hankers For Global High Table, Many Struggle For A Decent Meal -Jyoti Malhotra

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published Published on Jul 9, 2016   modified Modified on Jul 9, 2016
-HuffingtonPost.in

Bindeshwar Sahu, a grain dealer, lives in Nauhar village in the Barheta panchayat of Bihar’s Banke Bazar block, a couple of hours away from the Buddhist township of Bodh Gaya. In early June, economists Jean Drèze and Reetika Khera, actively campaigning for the Right to Food Act, and their team of surveyors requested the Block Development Officer (BDO), Sanjay Kumar, to look into Nauhar’s persistent complaints of irregularities into the Public Distribution System (PDS). When questioned, Sahu admitted as much. “Sir, jhoot nahin bolenge, hum do mahine ka khate hain.” (Sir, I’ll not lie. I keep two months worth rations for myself.)

The survey team was stunned. From the bottom of the food chain, a private grain contractor had admitted to stealing the people’s rations. He had probably been doing this for a while and, of course, believed he would get away with it. But now the people had gathered the courage to complain against him. He was not only over-charging them for their subsidized grain – 5 kg per person for wheat and rice, ideally priced at Rs2 and Rs3 per kg respectively--but also keeping some of it for himself. Some months, he would simply shut shop and not give out any grain at all.

At a public hearing that followed the survey on June 13, at the Jagannath High School in Banke Bazar, villagers from Nauhar led the clamour. The grain dealer must either go or reform himself. Several people had been left out of the new lists that promised them subsidized grain. In other villages in Gaya and Jamui, districts where the survey had taken place, local officials had been found to be turning a blind eye to grievances. BDO Sanjay Kumar, who left a job at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University to join the state administration, said, “I am promising you I will take action against [Sahu].”

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HuffingtonPost.in, 6 July, 2016, http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/07/06/right-to-food-india_n_10683488.html


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