On the basis of a complaint lodged by an individual in Mendhar, about the rotten Dalia supplied to 300 Centers of Anganwadi scheme, the Minister for Social Welfare Bali Bhagat ordered holding of an inquiry into the matter so as to take serious action against the concerned staff. He has directed the DC Poonch to seal the store and report within one day. On the face of it, we can imagine that this is a scam. Nevertheless, there are many dimensions of the scam, which have to be taken note of. The person who lodged a complaint is one in whose store the stuff has been stored for further distribution. For last ten months he has not been paid the committed rent of five thousand rupees a month. His repeated requests for payment of rent did not yield any result. In desperation he has lodged the complaint that the stuff has got rotten and gives foul smell. The question is why he waited for ten long months knowing that the stuff being stored in his store room would get rotten. He should have reported to the authorities of Social Welfare Department within a month when he did not receive the rent. The second question is why was so much stuff stored and not distributed so that it would not have got rotten. Who is responsible for distributing and for paying the rent? Somebody must be identified and held responsible. Thirdly, the person in charge of the scheme for distribution of stuff to the Anganwadi children has to be brought to book. It seems a big nexus has come up among so many officials and agencies in the Department of Social Welfare.
An impartial inquiry should be ordered into the entire matter and the weaknesses of the scheme should be identified and taken care of for future. It is by a miracle that the rotten stuff was not consumed by the kids otherwise the life of many of them would have been threatened. This is more serious aspect of the case.