Rajiv Gandhi it was who said that of every rupee that is benevolently sent in the direction of India’s poor, only 14 paise reaches its intended target. No wonder.
New Delhi: In the last three years, Rs 31,585.98 crore worth of wheat and rice meant for the poorest of the poor was siphoned off from the public distribution system. Last year alone, Rs 11,336.98 crore worth of foodgrain that the government is supposed to distribute to the needy at subsidised prices found its way into the market illegally.
Every year, India’s poor are cheated out of 53.3% of wheat and 39% of rice meant for them. […] The North-East is in a class of its own. Of the eight states here, not a single grain of wheat supplied to six—Sikkim, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Assam—reaches the targeted poor.
Remember what happened to Karnataka’s “Rice Scam” in 2004-2005?
india for all its exuberance about services lacks in deliverance and execution when it comes to its own matters.
here is an unsolicited piece of suggestion, i believe the authenticity of these pieces would greatly increase if they lose the tenuous attempts to rope in Sainath.
When you read this with ‘Dirty Old Man of India’s Journalism’ -Kushwant Singh’s post below -it makes sense why he has asked those questions!