EMN
Dimapur, April 17
The ACAUT Nagaland has sought the intervention of the Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan for implementation of Food Security Act in the state of Nagaland.
ACAUT Co-chairman Dr.Khekugha Muru and Info &Publicity Secretary Mar Longkumer in a memorandum to the Union Minister demanded immediate implementation the National Food Security Act (NFSA) with fool-proof input along the lines of Puducherry and Chandigarh where benefit or subsidy money is directly transferred to the beneficiary account through DBT system linked with Aadhar Card.
Stating that any other model besides this will be mired in corruption and will not benefit the common man, the ACAUT urged the minister to look into the misappropriation of 402 Cr and ensure no further Consumer Ministry support and allocation is awarded till the state government acts upon the misappropriation.
“The people of Northeast have never felt more closer and important with the Centre as with the present Government and have high hopes under the present dynamic leadership of Prime Minister NarendraModi to bring about positive changes to the region.” The ACAUT Nagaland is an anti-corruption movement started in the year 2013 and since then has been tirelessly raising and fighting the issue on behalf of the common man.
“The ACAUT acknowledges that since you became the Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public distribution, most of the States have fallen in line and implemented the National Food Security Act. It is most imperative that the state of Nagaland too implement the act immediately. Since the NFSA envisages amalgamating all the food programmes under the act, this should go a long way to control pilferage and mass misappropriation of food items, as it happening under the PDS, and the mid-day meal scheme. For instance, the CAG Report for the year 2016 has already implicated the Food & Civil Supplies department, Nagaland, for misappropriation of Rs. 402 Cr.”
“Likewise, the mid-day meal scheme too is under the CAG scanner for misappropriation of funds. Shockingly, in many of the schools, mid-day meal is served only twice or thrice in year. According to CAG, even the total number of primary students in the State has been inflated by more than 3,00,000 by the officials so as to usurp funds meant for the scheme for their personal gain.”
