Dantewada awaits its first helping of Indiamix

Clearing the initial bureaucratic red-tape and procedural delays, an ambitious scheme aimed at making “fortified blended food” available to children, pregnant and lactating mothers of Dantewada district in south Bastar, appears to be finally taking shape. In January this year, Union Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan formally launched the Grameen Pushti Yojana. The project, funded by public sector National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), was scheduled to take off by March. However, the scheme hit a roadblock following a series of objections raised by NMDC officials over its funding.

The NMDC, which operates major mechanised iron ore mines at Bailadila in Bastar, had come up with this social development project to be implemented in partnership with United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), to make available fortified blended food called “Indiamix”, containing wheat, soya, vitamins and minerals, to the vulnerable population.

Launching the scheme at a function in Bastar — hotbed of Maoist violence in the state — Paswan distributed 15 bags of “Indiamix”, after a verbal understanding between the NMDC and the WFP that other modalities for implementation of the scheme would be soon worked out.

According to NMDC sources in Bastar, the proposal was to provide nutritious food to 31,000 children in the age group of six months to six years through Anganwadis for a period of five years. Its cost worked out to be around Rs 2 crore per annum. Similarly, 49,000 others, including adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers, were to be given “fortified blended food” at an estimated cost of Rs 4.33 crore per annum.

Sources said NMDC’s finance department raised a volley of queries when it came to placing funds to the tune of Rs 6 crore with WFP, the world’s largest humanitarian agency providing food aid to 100 million people in 80 countries every year.

The related file moved up and down at NMDC headquarters in Hyderabad during the last seven months and finally the issue came up before the Board of Directors, which gave its approval on July 24 to release Rs 2 crore for implementation of the scheme.

When contacted, NMDC’s deputy general manager (corporate social responsibility) S R Bandhkavi said that the public sector undertaking was committed to implement the scheme to provide fortified food to the locals in Dantewada. “Being a Government organisation, certain set of procedures have to be followed before placing funds with any agency. There have been some procedural delays. WFP is not registered in India. Hence, the company would not get income tax benefit under Section 80-C,” he said, adding that it has now been agreed that WFP would register a trust within six months. Meanwhile, the NMDC has decided to release half of the amount so as to start the scheme as early as possible, Bandhkavi said.

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