Govt move on zunkha bhakar centres criticised

Mumbai, June 20: The Zunkha Bhakar Kendra ChalakSanghatana has protested the state government's decision to close down the zunkha bhakar c...

Mumbai, June 20: The Zunkha Bhakar Kendra ChalakSanghatana has protested the state government’s decision to close down the zunkha bhakar centres opened by the Sena-BJP government.

The government’s decision would have an adverse effect onthose running the over 2,000 centres in the state, a spokesperson of the Sanghatana said here today.

Several youths had taken bank loans worth lakhs of Rupeesto run the centres and the government’s decision would leave several of them unemployed and debt-ridden, he said.

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Urging the government to continue the scheme, he saidthough some of the centres had been misused by vested interest, those running them honestly should not be made to suffer and added that the sanghatana supported the government’s decision to take legal action against those who had misused the centres.

The Sena-BJP government had opened the centres to providezunkha bhakar, a staple in the Maharashtrian diet, at a nominal cost of one rupee to those below the poverty line.

However, then Chief Minister Narayan Rane, in April 1999,announced the government’s decision to stop Financial grants to zunkha bhakar centres. With the stoppage of grants, over 3037 of the centres downed shutters while another 625 were closed following complaints of irregularities and misappropriation of grants.

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