The organisation which earlier conducted
a survey in 100 villages in the State to
assess the implementation of the National
Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme said that
`abject poverty and chronic hunger manufactured
by the self-serving bureaucracy are the
main reasons behind these tragic deaths
of Adivasis'.
"Most of these Adivasis live a life
of semi-starvation which cripples their
immune system and their bodies become vulnerable
to a host of diseases.
"In KBK (Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput)
region, for better part of the rainy season,
large numbers of Adivasis have hardly any
food to eat and they survive on mango kernel
gruel, wild leaves and vegetables,"
CEFS observed.
Although NREGS programme was launched to
help people fight food insecurity, the CEFS
survey uncovered that out of Rs 733 crore
spent under NREGS during 2006-07, over Rs
500 crore had been siphoned off and misappropriated
by the government officials of executing
agencies.
The study revealed that large numbers of
needy households were denied not only jobs
but even job cards and not more than five
days of average wage employment has been
given to each needy family in these 19 NREGS
districts of Orissa.
"The current level of hunger, poverty
and deprivation in Orissa's KBK region is
as deep, demeaning and dehumanising as ever
despite the so- called successful implementation
of the NREGS with the highest per capita
allocation of funds anywhere in the country.
"The rural employment scheme has made
virtually zero impact on the livelihood
security of Orissa's rural poor. Hunger
and abject poverty are widespread in all
the 100 villages of KBK region we visited.
Large numbers of children in these villages
are suffering from severe malnutrition,"
Director of CEFS Parshuram Rai said in the
press release.
Is there any linkage between misappropriation
of Rs 500 crore of NREGS funds by government
officials and cholera deaths of 500 Adivasis
in Orissa? On the surface, the link is tenuous.
Scratch a little deeper and the linkage
is direct, the CEFS said in the release.
"To put Rs 500 crore of siphoned NREGS
funds in perspective, this amount of money
would have given about 90 days of wage employment
to about 10 lakh poor families of Orissa.
In other words, each of these 10 lakh poor
families would have got Rs 5,000 as wages.
This amount of Rs 5,000 in the context
of these poor and hungry families would
have given them 4-6 months of two subsistence
meals or one meal for the whole year. Therefore,
it is not just another financial scam, callous
officials of Orissa have robbed 10 lakh
hungry families' one meal for the whole
year or both meals for 4-6 months. Who is
real killer of Orissa's Adivasis?"
CEFS has submitted a memorandum to Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh requesting him to
visit at least a couple of villages to have
a first hand knowledge of the modus operandi
of the NREGA scam in Orissa, apart from
finding out the real killers of Adivasis
in the state.
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