Farmers, labourers urge PM for food security to all

New Delhi, Nov 26 (UNI) Amid growing concerns about 'hunger deaths'

and Genetically Modified (GM) seeds, hundreds of farmers and

labourers today urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ensure food

security to all the people in the country.

A rally under the banner of Steering Group of the Right of Food
Campaign was organised at Jantar Mantar here to demand legislation
of the Food Entitlements Act (FEA) and immediate attention towards
continuous reduction in food production in the country.

The Right to Food Campaign demands an Act that would deal with at
least some of the causes of hunger and will provide each and every
citizen of this country with food entitlements.

One of the agitators from Bihar Rahul, who is also associated with
an NGO Koshish, told UNI, ''Around 125 people have died of
hunger in Bihar this year but neither the Union nor state government
is interested in providing food to us. We are aggrieved from this
apathetic attitude of the government.''

Sharing his experience of dealing with the administrators, he
said, ''We contacted several officials including District Magistrate
but nobody paid attention to our problems. Corruption is present at
every level of administration.''

Reiterating Rahul's anguish towards the government, Steering Group
convenor Kavita Srivastava said, ''this misappropriation of funds is
not restricted to Bihar only. It is prevailed in all the states of
the country.''

A charter of demands was unanimously adopted and given to the PMO
after the rally. Universalisation of Public Distribution System,
effective grievance redressal system, special measures in disasters
were demanded in the charter besides several other demands, including
enactment of FEA.

If enacted, the FEA entitles each and every adult of 14 kg of
cereals per month along with 1.5 kg of pulses and 800 gm of cooking
oil at affordable prices.

Addressing the agitators, National Federation of Indian Women
(NFIW) national joint secretary Rashpal Kaur alleged that Indian
Government is working under the influence of International Monetary
Fund, World Bank and World Trade Organisation.

''We need to understand the conspiracy of these international
organistations. They are working for Multinational Companies who
only look for their profit,'' Ms Kaur opined.

''We are being advised to use GM seeds to get higher production
but the question is how can poor farmers afford to purchase such
expensive seeds,'' she questioned.

National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) representative
Bhupender Rawat said in spite of increasing the land for
aggriculture, government is allocating agricultural land to the industries and business houses.