Bihar govt forces people to buy rotten rice
Darbhanga: CNN-IBN has already shown you how tonnes of grain lay rotting out in the open across India, as the common man struggles with rising prices. If that wasn't bad enough, now it turns out that rotten grain is being sold forcefully to the poor in official ration shops in Bihar.
The expose of grain rotting in the open in Sirsa, Haryana forced the Food ministry to act. And, the grain is now being sold to Bangladesh and Nepal and distributed through PDS.
It's shocking but true. The poor of this country are forced to eat rotten rice, unfit even for cattle. The rice is being distributed through the government fair price shops officially in Dharbhanga district of the state. A BPL family, entitled to 15 kilograms, gets 13 kilos of subsidised rice and two kilograms of rotten rice. It's compulsory. Madhubala Sinha, ward councilor, says: "Kuch sara hua bhi hai. Kuch sahi bhi hai. Issi wajah se jo sahi hai wo alag se dete hain. Jo sara hua hai, 1-2 kilo public ko alag se dete hain. (While some are rotten, some are okay, too. So the rotten rice is being distributed to public separately with a fixed quantity to every body.)
A 104-year-old Johra has to clean the rice for more than an hour, then wash in warm water before boiling it. But despite all these precautions her grandson has fallen sick.
The 104-year-old lady from Johra says, "Acha milta tha toh kha lete the, aab ghatiya milta hai toh nahi kha paate hai. Murga-murgi ko de dete hai." (We used to eat whenever it was fit to eat. Now that these cannnot be eaten, we offer it to hens.)
Sabonisha, another villager, says, "Garib ko chikna dana dena chahiye. Aur rukhara dana paise walo ko do. Woh toh kharid ke kha lega. Garib kahan se kharid ke khaayega?" (Give good rice to poor and rotten to the rich people since they can buy it from the market and eat. The poor can not buy also.)
The State Food and Civil Supplies Minister Narendra Singh says he is helpless. "Humlog lachar ho jate hain. FCI Bihar sarkar ke niyantran se bahar hai." (We are helpless since the FCI is not under the control of Bihar government.)
Hence, for the people who can afford to buy, the rotting grain is used as cattle or poultry feed. But for most of the others, it's a choice between food and hunger.
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