The Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) on Monday accused the Modi - Adani duo for exhorting the rise of crony capitalist regime in India and alleged that Manipur’s issue of water scarcity, failure to distribute rice under National Food Security Act (NFSA) and price spike of cooking gas, essential commodities etc are all rooted in folds of crony capitalism.
Speaking to the media at the Congress Bhavan, Imphal, MPCC senior spokesman Ningombam Bhupenda Meitei claimed that issues poking the deprived population of the nation continued to rise since the BJP came to power in 2014. He maintained that the BJP government in Manipur failed to bring lasting amicable solutions to the various issues facing the state at present.
Bhupenda questioned why the state government had failed to distribute rice for NFSA beneficiaries for the month of December 2022 and February 2023.
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The senior spokesman further added that Food Corporation of India (FCI) Movement Plan Compliance data showed Manipur’s quota of December 2022 NFSA rice had been delivered but its whereabouts has not been ascertained.
“15,675 metric tonne of rice had been delivered through inter regional rail movement and nearly 6,000 metric tonne through road movement plan for Manipur but the delivered quantity is yet distributed to NFSA beneficiaries,” he said.
He also alleged that the bags of rice hit the state’s market before reaching the hands of NFSA beneficiaries. He claimed that the system had been designed to comfort the rise of few elites while looting the hard-earned wages of the poor people.
“50 kg superfine rice bags are presently sold for around Rs 1,750 in the market; even in economic blockades during Congress’ regime the prices did not touch that mark,” he added.
Bhupenda said that the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution had notified all states to start free distribution of rice under NFSA from 1 January, 2023 to 31 December, 2023. During the assembly sitting Manipur Chief Minister had assured to start the work using biometric authentication system, he added.
“The main problem with the proposal is how effective it will be in far flung regions of the state where network connectivity is non-existent,” he said.
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The spokesman also highlighted that the union government guidelines inscribed for such cases include setting up special camps and conducting identification drives. He questioned if the Manipur government had initiated the required measures to conduct the drives in remote areas of the state.
On the issue of water scarcity, Bhupenda expressed discontentment over the state BJP government for failing to initiate serious projects to mitigate the issue of water scarcity from the state. He questioned why the government had taken a long time to complete the Chingkhei Ching project which had been completed during the Congress government.
“The PHED minister in the assembly had noted 135 litre of water as the minimum requirement for people in all regions of Manipur but under the Jal Jeevan Mission the minimum requirement had been brought down to 55 litres,” he said. Bhupenda maintained that such contradictory assumptions is the reason for failure of various government policies.
“Poor planning along with power mongering ethics is the main reason for government policies,” he added.
On the issue of cooking gas, the MPCC spokesman stated that a spike in prices of cooking gas is happening in states governed by the BJP. Price of cooking gas in states governed by Congress is still very low, he added.
Therefore, Bhupenda exhorted people to wake up and soak in the deplorable conditions of everyday life under the BJP government and further alleged that such faulty schemes and policies had been intentionally enacted by the BJP to loot the common public to feed the crony capitalist regime.
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