Wheat deprived to ICDS beneficiaries
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, June 01 2012:
In spite of Social Welfare Minister's repeated assurances and hard labour for providing all the government supplied commodities to the public; wheat, which is to be provided to mothers and children under ICDS project, has been deprived all these years.
According to a reliable source, wheat, which is an item included under PDS items supplied by the Union government under ICDS project has not been made available to the needy mothers and children of the state.
In case of other PDS items like kerosene, rice and sugar, public may get the benefit at long last, but in case of wheat, another PDS item provided by the Central government under the ICDS project, the needy mothers and children have never enjoyed the benefit till date.
The source revealed that wheat is regularly procured from outside the state for the people of Manipur.
According to a notification issued by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to the Manipur state government recently, 181590 quintals of goods have been supplied for distribution among the states of India for the year 2011-12.Among the distributed goods, Manipur got a share of 5354 quintals of rice, but no wheat was sanctioned.
The wheat and rice are sanctioned by the Centre under the Wheat Base Nutrition Programme (WBNP) .
Among the North East states, Meghalaya received 4815 quintals of rice, Mizoram received 554 metric tonnes of wheat and 227 metric tons of rice; Nagaland received 3152 metric tonnes of rice and Tripura received 3654 metric tonnes of rice, the sourced added.
Meanwhile, another source stated that the items should be sanctioned under ICDS scheme of the Social Welfare Department.
However, the Food and Civil Supply, Public Distribution claimed that the items are meant for the state as a whole.
It has also been reported that the cost of rice and wheat per quintal, which is being supplied to BPL card holders under the ICDS, is Rs 565 and Rs 415 respectively.
These items are to be distributed by the state government to the districts as per order of the FCI.