Koragas warn stir over low-quality food

Udupi: Members of the Koraga community, designated as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) and residing in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts, have expressed grave concerns regarding the poor quality of nutritional food supplies distributed through govt welfare programmes.

The community members stated that they were facing health issues such as anaemia, tuberculosis, malnutrition, and a declining population. In response, the govt supplied nutritional food to Koraga families for many years. However, in the past two months, the quality of the nutritional supplies, including ghee, oil, chickpeas, pigeon peas, sugar, jaggery, green gram, rice, palm oil, and eggs, was poor, making them unfit for consumption and causing several health problems for the Koragas, stated Federation of Koraga Associations president Susheela Nada and coordinator Puthran Hebri.

A petition was submitted to the Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP) office, but there was no response to the main demands of the Koragas. Subsequently, a request was also submitted to the deputy commissioner of Udupi, urging the govt to immediately cancel the old tender, call for a re-tender, and ensure the supply of quality nutritional food. If the serious issues of the Koragas are not addressed promptly, a severe protest will be organised in front of the Udupi deputy commissioner's office by the Koraga organisations, they added.

When contacted, ITDP officer Narayana Swamy said that the issue was brought to the notice of the department and a meeting in this regard will be convened by deputy commissioner K Vidya Kumari on Monday. The tender to supply nutritional food was invited at the state level. The contractor was directed to replace the poor-quality nutritional food that they supplied. Further, notice was also served to the contractor, who will also be attending the DC's meeting, he added.