Thma U Rangli Juki (TUR) and Workers Power of Meghalaya has submitted an official complaint to the Chief Minister’s office and Social Welfare Department about what they call the long-running scam that runs into hundreds of crores which has blighted the Supplementary Nutrition Programme of the ICDS meant to feed children, young girls and pregnant and lactating mothers.
The seizure of tens of thousands of bags of rice meant for the ICDS programme from a warehouse in Assam recently has “lifted the lid off the illegal and corrupt practices that have been allowed to exist in the implementation of the SNP of ICDS,” they said in a press release today.
They also described the announcement of an inquiry by the Chief Minister as a “diversion” as it will not be a judicial inquiry and will be limited in scope.
“Proper and thoughtful implementation of SNP is important for a state like Meghalaya, which sadly has abysmal infant and maternal mortality rates along with a serious and persistent problem of childhood malnutrition resulting in health issues like rickets, stunting and vision impairment to name a few,” TUR and WPM said. “The Social Welfare Department as a nodal department for the implementation of ICDS has for far too long actively collaborated with various vested commercial interests to subvert a pro-people implementation of this very important welfare programme of the government. The proof that the programme is not being implemented properly lies in the outcome of low levels of various child health indicators.”
They described the statements made by the CM and Social Welfare Minister after news of the seizure of rice broke as “full of misleading facts about the implementation of the SNP”.
