Congress leader Niranjan Patnaik has slammed the Aahar scheme of the BJD Government, saying it is a populist stunt intended to pull the wool over the people of Odisha rather than a serious attempt to deal with the problem of hunger and malnutrition. “The poorest in Odisha neither live in the five major cities nor do they ever visit these cities. The Adivasis, the Dalits, the peasants who have been suffering neglect, live in the villages and visit small towns to sell their produce in the weekly Haat or at times small towns for medical care. The BJD Government hardly wants to benefit all these poor and needy people and has started the new scheme at places where there are news reporters and TV cameras. Naveenbabu wants publicity whch is paid for by State-run or private companies; food security is hardly his concern,” Patnaik remarked.
He said, “Odisha Mining Corporation, Tata Steel and other companies who mine in districts like Keonjhar and Sundargarh do not distribute even a glass of water in the villages around their locations nor is there such a programme at the hospitals in Keonjhar or Bonai or Sundargarh. Why is that people living in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Brahmapur, Sambalpur and Rourkela or visiting these cities have been found to be most deserving beneficiaries, unless of course the idea is to get maximum publicityIJ On the other hand the small hotel owners in these five cities will now be driven out of business and join the burgeoning ranks of the unemployed.”
Odisha has high incidence of hunger and malnutrition and, therefore, the concept of food security is unexceptionable. But Naveenbabu is not interested in food security as much as in garnering votes through publicity stunts, Patnaik said further. On the Odisha Day, he said, the State Government proclaimed through an advertisement that “the State has achieved pinnacle of success”. One cannot avoid thinking whether pinnacle of success of 16 years of rule is epitomised by the distribution of five-rupee food packets. There should be a broader debate on food security in Odisha and a proper methodology for implementation should be worked out to reduce incidence of hunger and malnutrition. The civil society and media should make people aware of the manner in which the BJD Government has trivialised an important issue, converting it into a populist stunt, said the Congress leader.