Food for thought

Sir,- It is really appalling to see the callous indifference and heartless attitude of Ministers, MPs and bureaucrats to the reports on starvation deaths in Orissa. They are coming out with statements about the food habits of the poor people. It is heartrending to see that a woman who earns hundred rupees a year has been classified as APL - above the poverty line. The powers that be seem to be not caring at all about feeding the starving people. When it is given out that there are millions of tonnes of foodgrains available to feed the poor, it is strange that nobody has bothered to open kitchens for providing free meals in the villages.

A bureaucrat says that there is the ``food for work'' scheme but people do not want to work. The villagers ask why the work should be allotted to contractors instead of the gram sabhas. And what is the Governor of Orissa doing? Is he not expected to send a report to the Central Government gathering information through his own sources? Or does this fiat apply only to people such as Ms. Fathima Beevi, former Tamil Nadu Governor, who are posted in States ruled by Opposition parties?

Will intellectuals go to Orissa and take up the cause of the dying men and women there?

Louis X. Jesudas,

Nagercoil, T.N.

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