Arunachal: High starvation deaths in rural areas

New Delhi, Apr 29: Arunachal Pradesh leaders have cautioned the Centre about impending starvation deaths in remote rural villages due to stoppage of Hill Transport Subsidy for PDS food grains even as Congress President Sonia Gandhi has asked the State Government to reduce the corruption in its offices.

Ms Gandhi's advise was conveyed to new Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu who led a delegation of the state here seeking her intervention for reviving Hill Transport Subsidy (HTS) for Public Distribution System (PDS) food grains, especially in remote rural villages.

Mr Khandu, in his Memorandum, said Arunachal's topography was mountainous and inhospitable. The terrains were bereft of adequate surface connectivity due to which the people in the upper reaches were deprived of PDS foodgrains.

Agriculture in this extreme cold climate was virtually impossible because of non-availability of arable land and Yak and sheep breeding were the only sources of sustainability, he added.

The PDS, they said, was successful since 1978 but the state was in the grip of a problem since March 2004 as the Centre refused to release HTS. The transport contractors of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) were refusing to transport the food grains because the Centre has been denieing HTS for last three years and system has come to a standstill leading to 'famine like situation'. However, if the issue was not resolved immediately, then starvation deaths may happen, they cautioned.

According to the delegation, protracted correspondence between Arunachal, the Centre and the FCI for the past yielded no results as certain terms and conditions for resuming HTS were not acceptable to the State Government.

The Centre should fix admissible transportation rate at Rs 2.25 a KM per quintal as against a flat rate of road transportation is fixed at Rs 1.15 per quintal/kilometer (Qt/Km). The existing tender rates vary from Rs 0.98 to Rs 3.50 per qt/Km from place to place depending on the degree of remoteness and accessibility.

Similarly, an average lead distance of Principal Distribution Centres (PDC) cannot be fixed at 252 Km since most of the PDCs are located at distance of 300 Km to 500 Km from the base depots located in Assam.

The letter says that it would mandatory to make payment of HTS as per approved rates, otherwise it would result in avoidable litigation. The total amount of accumulated HTS re-imbursement bills for the last three years is quite substantial. The annual requirment for the current year would be to the tuneof Rs 135 crores.

The Centre's unilateral decision to adjust and recover Rs 193 crores treating HTS bills as inadmissible, stating that there has been violation of the order of November 28, 1995 is not correct. This order was superseded by another order of February 23, 2001.

Accordingly, approval for extension of six PDCs in remote areas, where due to non-availability of road communication, all the PDS foodgrains had to be transported by head loads. This has caused a stupendous hike in the transportation rate from Rs 3 per Qt/km to Rs 125 per Qt/Km.

Moreover, in many administrative circles, PDS foodgrains are delivered to the consumers through helicopter sorties due to their inaccessibility even by head loads. Helicopter sorties are much costlier than the head loads.

UNI