Bhubaneswar, Feb. 23: The state government’s cheap rice scheme has failed to stop hunger and starvation in various rural pockets of Odisha.

Thirty-nine out of every 1,000 households in such areas are unable to manage two square meals a day. Also, nearly four per cent of the state’s rural population, estimated to be about 13.98 lakh, do not get adequate food, says the National Sample Survey, conducted by the Union ministry of statistics and programme implementation.

However, the state government has rejected the report saying it has been wrongly interpreted and there was political motive behind it.

The Opposition Congress today raised this issue in the Assembly and claimed that the much-hyped Re 1 a kg rice scheme was aimed to consolidate vote bank instead of solving the issue of hunger and starvation.

According to the survey, the percentage of households in rural India not getting adequate food throughout the year is 2.1 per cent or less as compared to 4 per cent in Odisha and 4.6 in Bengal.

Census 2011 said nearly 83.32 per cent of the state’s total population, estimated at 3.5 crore, still lived in rural areas. It is estimated that 13.98 lakh (four per cent of the total population in rural areas) were not getting adequate food everyday. In urban areas, 0.6 per cent people did not get adequate food.

Farm labour households are badly hit by scarcity of food. Nearly 10 per cent of agricultural labour households do not get enough food everyday.

According to the survey report, the food scarcity is high particularly during January and February. The survey was conducted between July 2009 and June 2010. By that time, the state government had already launched the subsidised rice scheme.

“The government claims 58 lakh poor families are getting rice. Then how can 13.98 lakh people still be deprived of adequate food?” said a senior Congress leader.

Raising the issue in the Assembly through an adjournment motion, Opposition chief whip Prasad Harichandan said: “The NSS report has exposed the government and its claim that poverty has come down to 37 per cent. They are misleading the people.”

On the other hand, food and consumer welfare minister Pratap Keshari Deb said: “The Centre has come out with such a report keeping the 2014 elections in mind. There are many loopholes in the report. Even the Planning Commission has raised objections to the survey report.”

He said the survey appears to be inspired by Union minister Srikant Jena, who hails from Odisha and is in charge of the statistics and programme implementation department. The Congress members walked out of the Assembly expressing their displeasure with the reply.