Ahead of the UP elections, the smiling face of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will be reaching millions of kitchens in the state as the SP government launched fortified iodized salt coined 'Samajwadi Namak' aiming to fight malnourishment and iron deficiency.
This is the extension of `Samajwadi’ projects like Samajwadi Pension, Samajwadi Ambulance, Samajwadi Smart phones and Samajwadi laptops.
The government project launched in collaboration with Tata Trust, will provide double fortified salt in 10 districts of the state in the first phase. Uttar Pradesh will be the first state to introduce double fortified salt for the poor.
launching the 'Samajwadi Salt', Yadav said that double fortified salt is good for anaemic people and will be a boon for the future generation.
"This SP government is always concerned about the health of people.This salt containing iron and iodine will put an end iron deficiency to some extent. Initially, it will be distributed in 10 districts and in the coming months in the entire state," the CM said.
Malnourishment among women and children is abysmally high in Uttar Pradesh and it is among the worst performing states in the area of underweight and malnutrition among children in the 0 to 6 year age group. UP is a dismal fourth from the bottom on child nutrition rates, only behind Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Daman and Diu.
As per the state's own records, 35.5 per cent of the total children identified as beneficiaries of supplementary nutrition programme under ICDS were underweight, with 62,728 falling in the Grade III and IV - severely malnourished - categories.
“Malnourished children and women are a blot on the face of a civilized society. No other government has worked in this direction. Only the SP government thought of providing hot cooked and nutritious food among needy children and women under Hausala Paushan project. Now it is the turn of providing fortified salt,” Yadav said.
Director, Tata Trust, Ranjan Shanker appreciated the move of the state government in a public health initiative and said that UP becomes the first state to launch such high quality salt for the poor.
Food and Supply Minister Kamal Akhtar and Principal Secretary Ajay Chauhan also spoke on the occasion.
In the first phase, the salt will be provided in Meerut, Moradabad, Farrukhabad, Etawah, Auriyya, Hamirpur, Ferozabad, Sidharthnagar, Sant Kabir Nagar and Mau districts. The copmmodity will be distributed through 8586 shops among 46.2 lakh rationcard holders covering 2.31crore people.
The price of one kilogram of Samajwadi Namak would be Rs 3 for the BPl / Antodaya rationcard holders while the APl would get it for Rs 6 per kg. The government would provide a subsidy of Rs 48.52 crore for the scheme with a target to distribute 60,000 metric tonnes of salt in these 10 districts.