During last one month, hundreds of poor Adivasis in Rayagada,Koraput and Kalahandi districts of Orissa have died due to “consumption of contaminated water and rotten food” and “ hunger and severe food insecurity ”.

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On the basis of   a study carried out  in 100 villages of Orissa, Delhi-based Centre for Environment and Food security (CEFS) firmly  believes that  it is not the epidemic of cholera but cancer of corruption that is killing  hundreds of poor Adivasis and crippling millions of them.

Cholera is only a symptom and by-product, the root cause is the cancer of corruption which has colonized and crippled all the vital organs  of Orissa administration. Abject poverty and chronic hunger manufactured  by the  self-serving  bureaucracy of Orissa are the  main reasons behind these tragic deaths of Adivasis.

Most of these Adivasis live a life of semi-starvation which cripples their immune system and their bodies become vulnerable to a host of diseases. In KBK (Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput) region, for better part of the rainy season, large numbers of Adivasis have hardly any food to eat and they survive on mango kernel gruel, roots, tubers, wild leaves and vegetables. This tragedy repeats every year.  The historic anti-poverty programme NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) has been launched to stop precisely this kind of tragedy. The primary objective of NREGS is to prevent hunger and provide food security to the rural poor of India.

However, CEFS survey in 100 villages of Orissa has uncovered  that out of Rs   733 crore spent under NREGS during 2006-7, over Rs 500 crore has been siphoned off and misappropriated by the government officials of executing agencies.

Is there any linkage between misappropriation of Rs 500 crore of NREGS funds by government officials and cholera deaths of 500 Adivasis in Orissa? On the surface, the link is tenuous. Scratch a little deeper and the linkage is direct.

To put Rs 500 crore of siphoned NREGS funds in perspective, this amount of money would have given about 90 days of wage employment to about 10 lakh poor families of Orissa. In other words, each of these 10 lakh poor families would have got Rs 5000 as wages. This amount of Rs 5000 in the context of these poor and hungry families would have given them 4-6 months of two subsistence meals or one meal for the whole year. Therefore, it is not just another financial scam, callous officials of Orissa have robbed 10 lakh hungry families' one meal  for the  whole  year or both meals for 4-6 months.  Who is real killer of Orissa’s Adivasis?

Please click the following link to see the full copy of a letter faxed to the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on this issue. The copies of this letter were also faxed to Shri L K Advani, Smt. Sonia Gandhi and Shri Prakash Karat.

http://www.cefsindia.org/pressrelease.html

Parshuram Rai, Director, Centre for Environment and Food Security

Delhi