KanglaOnline: Imphal: Wednesday,
April 09, 2014.
The Human
Rights Initiative (HRI) has sent a request to the Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court of India on April 7 seeking his intervention on the way the Targeted
Public Distribution System function in the state.
In a press
conference at its office in Wangkhei Thangapat Mapal, HRI’s executive director
Wahengbam Joykumar Singh alleged that the Targeted Public Distribution System
has failed in the state as the guidelines of PDS control and an interim order
of the Supreme Court, writ petion number 169 of 2001, have not been complied.
“MLAs and
ministers of the Government of Manipur are directly or indirectly involved in
plundering food grains of the people which ideally should be distributed
through PDS.”
Pointing out
that people in Manipur don’t get their quota of food grains in the prescribed
rate though the records are fudged and maintained on paper, he said that HRI
has conducted surveys on the“Status of Functioning of Public Distribution
System in Manipur” at Imphal East, Chandel, Bishnupur, Churachandpur and
Senapati and a booklet “The Food Drama” was released discussing in detail the
reports collected during the surveys.
“The numbers
of BPL families were fixed in 2002 and can be updated every year but this
number should not be increased for the next ten years. However, various RTI
petitions to the CAF and PD department have revealed that the total number of
BPL card holders are 1, 02,400 while the department earlier pegged the number
to 1, 66, 000 as on March 1, 2000.”
Continuing
that the figure will be valid till 2013 and no further identification of
families were carried out during the last 13 years, he alleged that the rice
grains of 63, 600 BPL ration cards have been misappropriated every months
during the last 13 years whereas citizens could not avail their rights to food
grains during this period.
An
investigation has also revealed that an equal quantity of wheat grains were
also taken appropriated by the state government even though the state didn’t
depend on wheat and those wheat grains have also been recorded as being
distributed, he added.
Meanwhile,
the quantity of rice distributed is less than the prescribed quota and the
price is also higher than the rates fixed by the state government in the
citizen charter published in this regard.
Wahengbam
Joykumar Singh stated that most of the citizens could not possess their ration
cards and about 75 percent of ration cards are in the custody of fair price
shop agents.
The procedure
for accessing a ration card as enumerated in the citizen charter is
contradictory with the provisions of PDS Control Order 2001 and it is so
difficult for any citizen to get ration card easily, he asserted.
He said that
a written application was submitted to the Speaker of Manipur Legislative and
other 53 members of Manipur Legislative Assembly along with copies of the“Food
Drama” before the last assembly session on February 2014 but none of the MLA
raised their voice.
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