Adam Halliday : Ahmedabad, Thu Dec 06 2012, 05:08 hrs
The Gujarat Government has for eight years “outrightly violated” the Supreme Court's directions on guaranteeing the Right to Food and continue, since 2010, to employ two Rajasthan-based contractors at about Rs 500 crore to feed 32 lakh children below six years and eight lakh pregnant and lactating women, the SC’s Commissioners, N C Saxena and Harsh Mander, on the issue has told the apex court.
The commissioners reported this is in spite of findings that the food supplied by these contractors is costlier, has a shorter shelf-life, is less nutritious and provides employment to only a fraction of people when compared to a decentralised process of food preparation by local women groups, which the SC has advocated since 2004.
Besides, the Rajasthan Government had June penalised one of these two contractors almost Rs 10 crore for supplying “poor quantity and quality” to its own food programme, the report also noted.
“Gujarat has been outrightly violating the orders of the Honorable Supreme Court in the matter of appointing contractors for the provisioning of Supplementary Nutrition Provisioning in the Integrated Child Development Scheme,” the commissioners said in the report that pertains to Take Home Rations distributed under the scheme. It was submitted on November 30.
Samples of the “Extruded Micronutrient Fortified Blended Food” supplied by these contractors — Kota Dal Mills and Murliwala Agrotech, Udaipur — have also been tested at the National Institute of Nutrition, a CSIR laboratory in Hyderabad, and found to be far less nutritious in terms of proteins, calories, fat and vitamins when compared to the recommendations of Central guidelines, the SC was also told.
Interestingly, both the SC and the Gujarat High Court had directed Gujarat at least four times to do away with these contractors and entrust the preparation of such food to local women’s groups.
The government had in November 2010 told the HC that handing over the programme to these groups at a go would “jeopardise” the food facility, and later said in court that they would hand over completely to the women’s groups by the first quarter of 2012.
Although meetings have been held on how the decentralisation should be done, the SC commissioners’ report shows the government continues to employ the contractors.
In May 2001, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties had filed a writ petition in the SC demanding the Right to Food be made a fundamental right under the provisions of the Right to Life. The Government of India, the Food Corporation of India and several state governments were marked as respondents.
In subsequent hearings in 2002, the SC passed two interim orders under which the SC Commissioners were appointed, and bestowed the powers to monitor and report to the SC steps taken by governments to implement court orders, and to conduct enquires.
Supreme court orders
In subsequent hearings in 2002, the SC passed two interim orders under which the SC Commissioners were appointed, and bestowed the powers to monitor and report to the SC steps taken by governments to implement court orders, and to conduct enquires.
Interestingly, both the SC and the Gujarat High Court had directed Gujarat at least four times to do away with these contractors and entrust the preparation of such food to local women’s groups
