A stunning media report from Orissa’s Nuapada district states that tribals in the district are made to survive on stones. However, the state Government denies any such reports.

Despite the denial by the Orissa government, Speaker of the legislative assembly of the state, Maheswar Mohanty, has ordered a House committee probe into media reports.

Certain TV channels had aired reports that poor tribals from Sinapalli in Nuapada district were compelled to survive on limestone to fight starvation.

The committee, comprising of members from the ruling Biju Janta Dal-BJP alliance and opposition Congress, was asked to present its report a week before the present budget session ends.

However, the revenue minister, Manmohan Samal, who has been asked to head the committee rubbished the media reports, saying that rice under the public distribution system was being made available in the area at regular intervals. Tribals at Sinapalli were getting their quota of subsidised rice and other foodgrains.

The minister blamed the media for airing such fabricated news. Samal asserted that the tribals had been ‘instigated’ to claim that they were eating stones.

The opposition Congress party stalled the House proceedings and demanded a discussion on the grave issue.

News of tribals relying on mango kernels for their survival had made headlines a few years back and now such reports of stones being used to fight starvation, point towards the grave problem of poverty in the state in particular and the country in general. It is often asked, is our PDS really working?

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Via: Timesofindia