It is tale of shame from Maharashtra's Thane district. An NDTV investigation has found that nutrition supplements meant for malnourished children in anganwadis are being siphoned off by middlemen, allegedly in connivance with government officials.

1. Tale of shame of NCP-Cong govt
It is tale of shame from Maharashtra's Thane district. An NDTV investigation
has found that nutrition supplements meant for malnourished children in
anganwadis are being siphoned off by middlemen, allegedly in connivance
with government officials. The supplements are then sold to poultry and
dairy farms as feed for livestock.
A hidden-camera investigation uncovered this nexus in Vikramgadh taluka
in Thane district. Activists say that this malpractice is not just limited to
Thane but spread across the state. There is no community control. It is only
a systemic control which is apathetic towards the whole issue because it's
not their children who are malnourished. It is the alienation of the entire
bureaucracy from the poor is another issue which is affecting all the
schemes for food, whether it is PDS (public distribtion scheme) or ICDS
(Integrated Child Development Services).
Maharashtra govt failed to protect children

2. Maharashtra has 95,380 functioning anganwadis. The state, with the central
government's assistance, spends Rs 1280 crore each year on providing
nutrition to children through these anganwadis. In spite of this, there are
80,586 severely underweight children in Maharashtra.
The supplements are sent to anganwadis to ensure that children from
economically weaker sections of the population get enough basic nutrition.
But due to an absence of proper monitoring, middlemen siphon it off to
make a quick buck, and deny the children what is rightfully theirs.
Maharashtra government slept over deaths of children
According the Maharashtra government's figures, more than 1.5 lakh
children have died in the last five years due to malnutrition in state. In 2011-
12 alone, 21,533 children died due to malnutrition. These numbers have left
many stunned. But even as the huge funds are allocated against
malnutrition, middlemen, allegedly with the collusion of some government
authorities; ensure that the children go hungry. Experts say, “It is shocking
in the sense that at the cost of malnourishment which Maharashtra is facing
such things are going on. Let's face it that all these years we talked about
being a progressive state; we are also now very high on malnourishment
status both in urban, rural and tribal areas. And this is something which all
of us have to accept including the system; that what is happening is that the
children who are malnourished are increasing in number and that needs to
be strictly controlled."
Author: Aniket Singh
Original Source:
http://thefearlessindian.in/tale-of-shame-of-ncp-cong-govt/