MCL's exit from Aahar scheme hots up political turf

The denial of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) to contribute to Aahar, a subsidised meal scheme for urban poor, has sparked off political wrangling in the state.

Sensing a behind the scene political conspiracy to abort MCL's contribution, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has alleged that a central leader exerted pressure on the company authorities to opt out of the scheme.

"To our knowledge, a majority in the MCL board had agreed to fund the scheme. The scheme costs barely Rs 3 crore and this is no huge amount for MCL, Nalco, SAIL or the Tatas. I believe a central leader pressurised the MCL authorities not to contribute to the scheme. It also gives me the impression that Nalco is also facing similar pressure to withdraw from the Aahar scheme," said BJD spokesperson Pratap Keshari Deb.

BJD chief whip Ananta Das said, while MCL is contributing handsomely to the Centre's 'Swachh Bharat Yojana', it has turned down chief minister Naveen Patnaik's appeal to contribute to the Aahar scheme.

The BJP has dismissed the charges and sought to turn the heat on the BJD, claiming the ruling party had orchestrated the allegation to hijack people's attention from the pressing issue of power tariff hike.

"There is no reason for the BJD to protest since they did not have any written pact with MCL. The state government which claims a surplus revenue, could have implemented the scheme out of its own Budget. Else, they could have sent a proposal to the prime minister. All this is being done by the BJD to shift the people's attention from the urgent matter of power tariff hike," BJP leader Pratap Sarangi said, reacting to the BJD's allegations.

The state government, on March 2, launched the Aahar scheme, seemingly modelled on Tamil Nadu's Amma Unavagam scheme.

The Aahar scheme is scheduled to take off on April 1, observed as 'Utkal Divas' in the state. Under the scheme, rice and dal curry would be served to the urban poor at Rs 5 per meal. The scheme being a post Budget announcement, the state government has decided that the funding for the scheme would be arranged from chief minister's relief fund and from CSR (corporate social responsibility) fund of corporates.

Apart from MCL, the state government had sought contributions from Tata Steel, National Aluminium Company (Nalco), Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), a unit of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and its own PSU Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC).

Each corporate will have to pay Rs 2.19 crore annually to cover expenses under various heads of the scheme.

The scheme will be implemented in five municipal corporations-Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Sambalpur and Rourkela. Each corporation will set up four cheap food outlets at bus stand, railway station and hospital areas targeting 1,000 urban poor for each outlet.