Catholic Congress in southern Kerala state has launched a signature campaign after getting wind of the government’s move
Election banners for the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Vadakara in the southern state of Kerala, ahead of Indian national elections in April 2019. Catholics in the state are now protesting the withdrawal of a government supply of food items to old people’s homes and orphanages. (Photo: AFP)
Catholics in the southern Indian state of Kerala have launched a signature campaign against a reported move by its communist rulers to withdraw a government supply of food items to homes for the elderly and orphanages.
“It is a highly condemnable act,” said P. P. Joseph, president of the Catholic Congress in Changanassery Archdiocese, after launching the campaign at a local old people’s home on July 10.
The signatures with an appeal to not abandon the aged and orphans will be handed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, he said.
The signature campaign was initiated in response to an appeal from the Commission for Social Harmony and Vigilance of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council.
“More than 100,000 inmates in 1,800 old people’s homes and orphanages in the state are going to be deprived of food supplied through the public distribution system,” said Father Michael Pulickal, CMI, secretary of the commission.
The Kerala government decided to discontinue the supplies on July 10 though “verbal instructions to this effect to officials,” the priest alleged.
“The Catholic Church opposed the decision then and will continue to oppose this latest decision too”
The priest claimed to have got the information from reliable sources in the state’s social welfare and public distribution departments. The reason given was that the federal government had withdrawn its support for the free ration scheme in the state.
Government officials remained tight-lipped. A senior official told UCA News on July 11 that the government has “enough storage of food grains.”
The official, who did not want to be named, also denied any official information about the alleged move to discontinue food supplies.
Father Pulickal, though, appealed to the provincial government to reverse the decision and reminded of an earlier decision to withdraw the social security pension of residents at old people’s homes in the state in August 2021.
The Catholic Church opposed the decision then and will continue to oppose this latest decision too, he said.
“They [old people and orphans] are among the most vulnerable sections in society with no one to look after them,” the priest said.
Catholic Church officials want people from all walks of life to join together to defeat the government move and have appealed to everyone in Kerala to join the signature campaign.
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