PM’s intervention sought to prevent epidemic in Orissa
Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Blaming corruption in the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as the main cause of cholera deaths in Orissa, the Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) has sought the intervention of the Prime Minister in checking the disease that has now taken an epidemic proportion.
In a letter addressed to Manmohan Singh, the Centre pointed out that it was the “cancer of corruption” that was killing the adivasis in Orissa and not cholera. Cholera is only a symptom and a by-product, the root cause is the corruption, which has crippled all the vital organs of Orissa’s administration. Quoting a survey conducted in 100 villages of Orissa where the NREGS was being implemented, the Centre alleged that of the Rs. 733 crore spent under the programme in 2006-07, over Rs. 500 crore had been misappropriated by the officials involved in the execution of the scheme.
The current level of hunger, poverty and deprivation in Orissa’s Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput region is as deep, demeaning and dehumanising as ever, despite the so-called successful implementation of the programme with the highest per capita allocation of funds. The study suggested that the scheme had had virtually zero impact.
Copies of the letter have also been sent to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition L.K.Advani and Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat.
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