This week Goa woke up to the news that the Goa government had callously wasted tons of tur dal -- 242 tons to be precise and 10.2 metric tons of sugar that was allowed to go waste -- and had now sought bids from those willing to take the dal and dispose it.
The Opposition parties have taken up the issue and have expressed outrage about it -- and rightly so. Waste of food is always appalling -- especially food that is meant for distribution among those who need it the most -- those who depend on government distribution to meet their daily needs.
242 tons -- 2,42,000 kilos -- of pulses is no small amount that can be brushed aside and blamed on the negligence of a forgetful official with a mere apology and a promise to be on alert the next time. This comes at a time when inflation, especially food inflation is at an all-time high, unemployment is double the national average and households are doing all they can to cut expenses, including relying on grain distributed by the government to help keep expenses down is all the more reason to be upset.
Is the government suggesting that the grain was of bad quality, to begin with, that meant the government was in no position to distribute it? Or was it allowed to rot and be eaten by weevils at the government godown that rendered it inedible and thereby meaning that the entire responsibility of it going bad lying on the shoulders of the Goa government? Or is this tender process a clandestine move by the government to dispose of perfectly good grain to a certain interested party at a cheap rate by surreptitiously claiming that it is no more fit for consumption?
Our memories aren’t so short that we haven't forgotten the days of the Covid pandemic when food was hard to source and the government was forced to even turn Kadamba buses into makeshift public distribution shops to ensure that no one goes hungry on account of a lack of income or being unable to reach the store. During those days we also recall that grain, especially dal that was distributed to areas that were placed in a containment zone -- Mangor Hill in particular -- rejected the grain that was given to them and fed it to the cattle for being of poor quality.
The government needs to come clean on where the lapses took place and more importantly fix responsibility. Is it storage conditions that led to the grain going bad? Did the government fail to adequately plan for distribution logistics? Was the grain surplus more than what the State had takers for, and hence was allowed to go to waste?
No doubt the department has said it has ordered an inquiry, but that came from the executive. From the government or the ruling party, there hasn’t even been an acknowledgement of the gravity of the lapse giving the impression that they are waiting in the hope that the outrage will die down on its own.
Such an attitude does not augur well for any State. One hopes that at least someone with a conscience will wake up and stem the rot.
