Jharkhand drought-affected protest over non-distribution of grains

Palamu, Sep 30 (ANI): Hundreds of poor and drought-affected people in Jharkhand's Palamu District staged a protest outside Food Corporation of India godowns on Wednesday.

Protesting, under the banner of the Vikas Sahoyg Kendra Sanstha, Palamu, they claimed that the state government was not distributing grains and allowing them to rot in godowns.

"We are doing this to inform the government that the godowns are full of grains. We are urging the government to unlock the godowns," said Jawahar, the President of the Palamu Development Agency.

" The situation has worsened and people are dying of hunger. We can rob these godowns so that people do not die of hunger," said Pushpa Devi.

On August 31, the Supreme Court had ordered that instead of allowing food grains to rot in godowns, should be distributed among the poor. Following the ruling, the Central Government decided to release an extra 2.5 million tonnes of foodgrains to various states for distribution among the poor.

According to media estimates, thousands of tonnes of grains were found spoiled in godowns on January 1 this year.

Between 1997 and 2007, 183,000 tonnes of wheat, 633,000 tonnes of rice, 220,000 tonnes of paddy and 111,000 tonnes of maize got rotten due to poor storage facility of the country. (ANI)