IMPHAL, December 29: A one-day Legal Discourse on Rights to Food was held today at the Conference Hall of the Institute of Co-operative Management, Lamphelpat.
Advocate Khaidem Mani; associated professor Economics Department, Manipur University, Chinglen Maisnam; lecturer LMS Law College Dr Chongtham Narendra Singh and Meihoubam Rakesh, Director Human Right Law network (HRLN) attended as the presidium members.
Chinglen Maisnam observed that there are several centrally sponsored schemes in the state; however, people are unable to avail the benefits from any of the schemes.
He said the state is fully dependent to the Centre for everything.
State politicians have today failed to speak out to the Centre on the needs of the people, he opined.
Due to the failure of the state politicians and government to properly express the needs of the state, all centrally sponsored schemes have failed to bring the sought benefits, he continued.
Elaborating further, he said that people are more aware of a housie game than that of food security.
Citing that in the nearby state of Tripura, the government makes it sure that PDS items reach the beneficiaries, he said that in Manipur, the items seldom reach the people.
He further continued there is not even proper godown in the state to store the essential items.
He further observed that since people are not fully aware of the importance of bank accounts, people seldom open their own personal accounts.
Every problem in the state is due to the bad governance, he opined before adding that people need to be aware of their legal rights and unitedly make efforts to understand the schemes especially the Food Security Bill and avail its benefits.
