Clearing the initial bureaucratic red-tape and procedural delays, an ambitious scheme aimed at making “fortified blended food” available to children, pregnant and lactating mothers of Dantewada district in south Bastar, appears to be finally taking shape. In January this year, Union Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan formally launched the Grameen Pushti Yojana. The project, funded by public sector National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), was scheduled to take off by March. However, the scheme hit a roadblock following a series of objections raised by NMDC officials over its funding.

The NMDC, which operates major mechanised iron ore mines at Bailadila in Bastar, had come up with this social development project to be implemented in partnership with United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), to make available fortified blended food called “Indiamix”, containing wheat, soya, vitamins and minerals, to the vulnerable population.

Launching the scheme at a function in Bastar — hotbed of Maoist violence in the state — Paswan distributed 15 bags of “Indiamix”, after a verbal understanding between the NMDC and the WFP that other modalities for implementation of the scheme would be soon worked out.

According to NMDC sources in Bastar, the proposal was to provide nutritious food to 31,000 children in the age group of six months to six years through Anganwadis for a period of five years. Its cost worked out to be around Rs 2 crore per annum. Similarly, 49,000 others, including adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers, were to be given “fortified blended food” at an estimated cost of Rs 4.33 crore per annum.

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