People's Democracy

SEVERE DROUGHT IN ANDHRA PRADESH

CPI(M) Run Gruel Centres Evoke Good Response

M Venugopala Rao

DIFFERENT sections of the people in the state of Andhra Pradesh are responding in good measure to the campaign being carried out by the CPI(M) for collecting donations and alms to run more gruel centres in the districts affected by severe drought to provide some sustenance to the starving people and prevent starvation deaths. Squads of leaders of the Party have gone on bikshatana (mock begging) in different districts from April 21 and have thus far collected Rs 9.5 lakh from the people in the form of donations and alms. 

While continuing to agitate for drought relief and food security for the affected people, the CPI(M) has already started running 56 gruel centres in nine districts and is going to start another fifty such centres. This move was prompted in the face of criminal negligence of the state government in coming to the rescue of the starving people. The CPI(M) is the first  political party to start the gruel centres in the state. It started the first gruel centre in Nagarkurnool in Mahboobnagar district on March 5.  Koratala Satyanarayana, member of the Polit Bureau of the CPI(M),  B V Raghavulu, secretary of the state committee of the Party and N Narsimhaiah, floor leader of the Party in the legislative assembly, accompanied by other leaders and cadres, have gone round several areas, from RTC x Roads to Nampally,  in Hyderabad, seeking alms from the people for starting more gruel centres in drought-affected areas.  They and P Ramayya, member of the central committee, P Madhu, V Srinivasa Rao and V Krishnaiah, members of the state secretariat of the CPI(M),  other leaders and cadres of the Party and mass organisations approached the people in the same way in other districts also till April 28.

About 150 to 200 people are coming to each one of the 56 centres run by the CPI(M) and taking gruel everyday. With their earning members migrating to urban areas in search of work, the old people and children in the families are left out in their villages without any support to sustain themselves.  With the announcement of summer vacation to schools, the mid-day meal scheme was also stopped.  Mostly, these old people and children are thronging the gruel centres daily.  In almost every place the people are expressing resentment against the government for its failure and negligence in providing food security to the starving people and work to the agricultural workers and other toiling people in the villages.  There is all-round appreciation from the people for the modest efforts being made by the CPI(M) for running the gruel centres. 

In the districts of Anantapur and Mahboobnagar alone there is a need for running 300 gruel centres each.  Saying  that the CPI(M) does not have the required financial strength to run so many gruel centres,  Raghavulu has requested all other political parties to take up this programme, the ruling Telugu Desam Party to take the lead and all the MLAs to take the responsibility for providing sustenance to the starving people in their respective constituencies.  He has asked the state government to start gruel centres and motivate voluntary organisations also to run the same. Raghavulu has also requested the government to continue implementation of the mid-day-meal scheme during the summer vacation also and extend the same to the old people, the physically handicapped people and pregnant women.

NOTHING IS SACRED FOR LOOTING

While approaching the people for alms for running the gruel centres, the leaders of the CPI(M) are also explaining the utter failure and negligence of the government in coming to the rescue of the starving people and other poor people in the drought-affected areas.  While the government has to utilise 5 lakh tonnes of rice under the food-for-work programme from October last to March this year, only 3.4 lakh tonnes of rice is utilised.  The government has to utilise another 12 lakh tonnes of rice under the same scheme during April and May.  It is doubtful whether the government, which could utilise only 55,000 tonnes of rice per month during the last six months, would be able to utilise 12 lakh tonnes of rice in two months. While 60 lakh families have sought work, till now the government could provide work to 27 lakh families only. The government’s claim that it could create 3.35 crore mandays by utilising 3.4 lakh tonnes of rice indicates that per manday 10 kgs of rice is distributed.  However, a study conducted by the CPI(M) has shown clearly that several irregularities have taken place in the implementation of the scheme and that per manday only two to five kgs of rice is given. The CPI(M) has demanded the government to order a thorough enquiry into these large scale irregularities and hold an all-party meeting to prevent misuse of the rice.  The state government’s decision to pay 50 per cent extra for the work done on hard soil has come in for severe criticism and the CPI(M) has made it clear that it is intended to  misutilise the remaining 12 lakh tonnes of rice.  The CPI(M) has demanded the government to give six kgs of rice and cash equal to the value of two kgs of rice per manday, irrespective of measurements of the work done, making it clear that it would reduce the scope for misuse.

FALLACIOUS CRITICISM

Instead of appreciating the modest efforts of the CPI(M) in coming to the rescue of the starving people in the drought-affected areas and emulating the same, some of the ministers and leaders of the Telugu Desam Party have made derogatory remarks against the CPI(M), terming the seeking of alms from the people for running gruel centres as “political drama”. The media has acknowledged the efforts made by the CPI(M) and the utility of the gruel centres.  The CPI also has started running some gruel centres and the Congress has decided to start some such centres.  Some of the voluntary organisations and philanthropists also have come forward and started gruel centres and some of them have given donations collected by them to the CPI(M) to run the gruel centres, expressing confidence that the Party would do the job sincerely. The chairman of Anantapur Zilla Parishad, belonging to the TDP, is also running a centre providing free meal to about 1,000 people daily for the last twenty days and has decided to continue the same for one more month.  All these show how falsified is the criticism  the TDP leaders have made  against the CPI(M), expose their intolerance and prove the callousness and failure of the government in rendering even minimum help to the starving people. As a result of not receiving any help in their distress, 150 people have committed suicides or died of starvation so far this year.

The CPI(M) has stated that it is strange that the TDP leaders, who have no commitment and are simply publicity-oriented in every programme taken up by the government, are alleging that the opposition parties have taken up relief measures for the sake of publicity. The rice under food-for-work scheme intended to help the poor is being misued by the TDP leaders. Raghavulu has made it clear that the Communist Parties are always taking up such relief measures whenever the people are affected by natural calamities like severe drought and famine, whether in Andhra Pradesh or in West Bengal or in any part of the country.