Pramila Mallick

Bhubaneswar, Jan 28: The Opposition today demanded the resignation of chief minister Naveen Patnaik over the dal scam, even as the government today assured that stringent action would be taken against the guilty and the substandard dal would be replaced.

To ease the pressure on the government, Khirod Mallick, brother of women and child development minister Pramila Mallick, resigned from the membership of the state-level monitoring committee for the midday meal scheme.

Minister Mallick has been in the eye of storm since she heads the nodal department for implementation of midday meal scheme and she had nominated her brother to the state-level monitoring committee.

But Mallick said her brother, who is an international NGO activist, deserved to be nominated to the committee, in his own capacity and there had been no discrepancy.

Not satisfied with the minister’s explanations, the Opposition Congress today staged a demonstration in her home district Jajpur pressing for the resignation of Mallick and chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

“Naveen should step down as his government has failed to implement the directives of the Supreme Court as well as the high court,” leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh said. “The government should have taken action immediately,” he added.

“Chief minister Naveen Patnaik cannot escape the responsibility. How many times has he reviewed the implementation of the midday meal scheme?” asked senior BJP leader and former minister Bijoy Mohapatra..

Mohapatra alleged that the Naveen Patnaik government had failed to implement the directives of Supreme Court and the high court.

The apex court had delivered its interim judgment on October 7, 2007 acting upon a PIL filed by the Peoples’ Union of Civil Liberty.

The trial of the case is still pending in the Supreme Court, he said.

In another case, the Orissa High Court, in May last year, had asked the state government to constitute a three-member official committee to monitor the quality of dal, check price and prevent pilferage.

The court had asked the government not to engage contractors for supply of dal under midday meal scheme and involve the self help groups. But the government did not implement these directives, said Mohapatra.

Chief secretary Bijoy Patnaik said: “Stringent action would be taken if there have been lapses in monitoring the quality of dal supplied under the midaday meal scheme.”

Concerned district collectors would be asked to replace the dal found to be of low quality or inedible, said the chief secretary.

Though chief minister Naveen Patnaik kept mum on the issue, senior ruling BJD leader and Rajya Sabha member Pyarimohan Mohapatra described the supply of substandard dal as “unfortunate”. He, however, blamed the failure of supervisory officers for the lapses.