A delegation comprising of AIARLA General Secretary Dhirendra Jha, former MP and AIARLA National President Rameshwar Prasad, CPI(ML) MLA from Balrampur Mahbood Alam, AIARLA State Secretary Virendra Prasad Gupta and Gopal Ravidas, submitted a memorandum to the Food and Supplies Minister of Bihar on 18 January.
The socio-economic census of 2013 has once again established that Bihar is in the grip of dire poverty. A large part of the State’s population is affected by starvation, near starvation, and malnutrition. Continuous drought conditions have made the situation even worse. Most of the dalit, mahadalit, and EBC families as well as senior citizens, disabled, and children of destitute families are deprived of the right to food. The Bihar government has passed the Food Security Act, but even today a large section of needy families is deprived of this right. The list of beneficiaries of the Food Security Act is a bundle of irregularities. Moreover, the PDS system is so corrupt and lax that the poor do not get rations for even 6 months in a year. Food security is very important for a backward and poor State like Bihar and the guarantee of social justice is also very important. Therefore, the AIARLA delegation demanded from the Minister for Food and Supplies to act without delay on the following demands:
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1. Issue food security coupons to all needy families under the Food Security Act. Remove rich families from the food security list. Make an all-party panchayat level committee to finalise the list of beneficiaries under the food security list. Fix the date for final publication of the list and prior to that put it in the public domain and ask for corrections.
2. The mega-alliance government should put a stop to the process of cash-for-food being inflicted on the people by the BJP.
3. End the dealer system of ration-kerosene distribution and start government co-operative shops on the basis of revenue villages as in Tamil Nadu.
4. Break the dealer-MO-SDO nexus responsible for loot and black marketing of rations. Make the distribution system transparent, computerized, and digital.
5. Display the ration-kerosene distribution report on the 15th of every month on boards at Block offices. Cancel licenses of erring dealers on the basis of complaints and register cases against them.
6. Make the work system of district SFCs and godowns corruption-free and transparent.
7. The right to food should be made more meaningful by distributing eggs, potatoes, onions, milk and dal along with rice, wheat and sugar under the PDS system, as per the recent directive of the Supreme Court in connection with drought-affected areas. Give the benefit of the already existing Antyodaya scheme to dalit-mahadalit and destitute families and further expand this scheme.
