Flood victims in Bhopal have received wheat bags with large quantities of mud and stones.
For families affected by flood and running short on supplies, a 50 kg sack of wheat goes a long way in ensuring they don't go hungry to bed. However, for some in Bhopal, the assistance has only added insult to injury.
More than 20 families in Bhopal's Sanjay Nagar have complained that the bags of wheat provided to them by the government as flood relief contained large amounts of mud and stones.
On Tuesday evening, the angry residents protested against this outside the government-run ration shop. Faced with the mob, the shop salesman exchanged the wheat sacks with better quality ones.
"It was not a big issue. Around 20 sacks of wheat had a lot of mud. We replaced the wheat given to victims. And we are now returning the wheat sacks with mud and stones to the Food and Civil Supplies Department which supplied it to us," said Amjad Khan, the salesman at ration shop.
Victims, many of whom have had their homes damaged in the flood, are hurt. "This is absolutely wrong on the part of the government. If they want to help, then give us good quality wheat otherwise don't come forward to help us," 35-year-old Ahana, who had come to the shop to get the wheat replaced, told NDTV.
The embarrassed BJP government has now ordered a probe. Om Prakash Dhurve, Minister Food and Civil Supplies, Madhya Pradesh said, "Whatever has happened is sad. There has been wrongdoing at lower level. We are investigating and will take action. Collector, SDM (Sub-Divisional Magistrate) all are investigating the matter."
Congress has alleged the incident is a result of corruption in Mr Dhurve's department and questioned why senior bureaucrats were seemingly being exonerated even before the probe has concluded.