Starvation deaths a shame, says Sonia

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 29. An angry Opposition led by the Congress president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, today launched an all-out attack against the Government in the Lok Sabha over the starvation deaths saying it was a shame when the country had surplus foodgrains. At the end of the debate, an all-party meeting summoned by the Speaker, Mr. G. M. C. Balayogi, decided that the House would take up the issue tomorrow.

``It is painful that starvation deaths are happening when we have over 60 million tonnes of buffer stocks in our godowns,'' said Ms. Gandhi. The Opposition also accused the Government of being a ``silent spectator'' to the tragedy.

In a related development, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), perturbed over reports of starvation deaths in Orissa issued notice to the State Government asking to prevent such deaths. The Commission ordered the State Chief Secretary to reply ``within one week giving details of the action taken to prevent such deaths''. Some days ago, the Supreme Court had directed the Centre and five State Governments including Orissa to take effective steps to ensure that no starvation deaths occurred.

Spearheading the Opposition onslaught in the Lok Sabha, Ms. Gandhi said the situation had come to such a pass ``because of bad planning, bad management of food stocks and a bad distribution system''. Urging the Government to take immediate short-term and long-term steps to rectify the situation, she suggested the initiation of food-for-work programmes. She also alleged that the Government had failed to act on the suggestions made by some Congress Chief Ministers to set up grain banks.

Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party said the situation was so bad that people had to sell their children and wives to raise money for food. He charged the Government with acting under pressure from multinationals and not doing anything to ensure that the food stock lying in its godowns reached the poor. Mr. Yadav warned that his party would be forced to lead a agitation to break open the granaries and distribute the food if the Government failed to devise a mechanism for proper foodgrains distribution.

The CPI(M)'s Mr. Somnath Chatterjee felt that the Supreme Court directive to the Government in the matter reflected very poorly on the polity. Pointing out that people were starving to death when foodgrains were rotting in the godowns, he said the present situation was because of the Government's faulty policies whereby cheap rice was imported from Indonesia while farmers here could sell their produce. Supporting Ms. Gandhi's demand for food-for- work programmes, Mr. Chatterjee said they had proved very helpful in the past.

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, said the Central Government would cooperate with the State Governments in finding a way out to reach the foodgrains to the drought-hit. The Centre was prepared to make available foodgrains and it was the duty of the States to ensure its proper distribution, he added.

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