Pradhan Requests For Central Fact Finding Team To Nagada Village

BHUBANESWAR: Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has requested three Union Ministers to send a fact-finding team to Nagada village in Odisha’s Jajpur district, where 19 children died due to malnourishment recently.

Pradhan wrote separate letters to Health Minister JP Nadda, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Sanjay Gandhi and Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram to send the fact finding team from their ministries to ascertain the various factors that have led to the death of children.

“Despite National Food Security Act being in force, hunger deaths in the mineral rich and industrially progressive district is shocking. It has come to light that the village has been left out of all developmental schemes. Exclusion of tribals from the NFS Act, ICDS programme, and MNREGA have led to increased impoverishment,” Pradhan pointed out.

He said though Juang tribals inhabit in the village, they have not been allotted forest land under Forest Rights Act.

“There is no road connectivity to Nagada village. The tribals use forest track and cover ten km by walking to get any service or benefit available under the various scheme,” he added.

He said it is a matter of regret that 45,536 children in Odisha are suffering from acute malnutrition out of which 894 are from the Jajpur district.