The Bengal government has instructed the administrations of all the districts to conduct social audits on the midday meal scheme and the PDS (public distribution system) that involves the distribution of food grains and certain other essential commodities through thousands of ration shops spread across the state.
The social audit will start from mid-December.
The decision, administrative sources said, has been made to ensure that anomalies are ironed out in the implementation of both these schemes.
Under the midday scheme, students of state-aided schools and the Sishu Siksha Kendras are served cooked meals during school hours.
“The state has received complaints related to midday meals. In some cases, children were served food of inferior quality which didn’t match the stipulated diet. In other cases, it was alleged that people associated with educational institutions have fudged accounts and bills to siphon money and foodgrains,” said a source in the administration.
That is why, the social audit, which will commence in the districts from mid-December, is being deemed a vital exercise.
Teams from the district panchayat and rural development department and other departments concerned will visit all educational institutions to check whether there is any anomaly or malpractice.
“If they come across any such case, they will report it to the administration and necessary steps would be taken,” the source added.
Teams will be engaged to conduct a social audit of the distribution of food grains and other essentials through ration shops.
“We have come across complaints that a section of ration dealers indulge in unscrupulous practices like distributing food grains in lesser quantities among ration card holders. Also, there were incidents when ration dealers were found using fake ration cards to draw more food grains from the government and later, selling those illegally in the open market,” said an official.
Some steps were taken against some dealers. But the social audit, he said, would help to find out if there are any large-scale aberrations or malpractice, he added.
Shama Parveen, the district magistrate of Jalpaiguri, confirmed that the exercise would be initiated later this month.
“We have received specific instructions from the state. Accordingly, social audits will be conducted for the midday meal scheme and the PDS. After the audit, we will collate and analyse the data for further remedial steps,” she said.
Political observers said that the entire exercise has been planned to improve the TMC’s image in the districts.
A number of local-level TMC leaders and workers in the districts are allegedly involved in corruption related to both schemes, they said.
“It is evident that the Trinamool leadership wants to pass a missive to people that the state government is sincere in addressing allegations of corruption and malpractices and wants full-fledged implementation of both the schemes,” said an observer. “It will be interesting to see what steps are taken in case anomalies are found during the social audit.”
