The Indian State of Jharkhand has enlisted the aid of the Catholic Church to help distribute food to victims of the recent drought, a motion that has brought criticism from some political groups in the region.

At the beginning of August the government declared the entire state to be drought-affected, with only 22 percent of local rice fields meeting their annual production quota.

Jharkhand's governor's advisor T.P. Sinha met with Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi, at the end of the month to issue a request for the Church's official participation in the public distribution system in all 24 of the State's districts.

The move came at the chagrin of several groups in the area, including Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and political party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Mithilesh Naravan, Chief of the RSS, said that the government is wrong "to outsource one of the most important responsibilities of the State government," and that running the state "communal lines," can prove dangerous for the people.

Raghuwar Das, chairman of the BJP in Jharkhand, characterized the state's collaboration with the Catholic church as, "an attempt to Christianize the State."
Das and Naravan have both stated that they see the move as an attempt by the Jharkhand Congress to gain support from the church for future elections.

Jharkhand authorities have responded by explaining the collaboration with the church to be just one part of a larger plan to involve all NGO's in the area to work with the public distribution system.

"I am an administrator, not a politician," Sinha said. "I am not concerned with the RSS, the USS or Congress."

"I have asked Pradhan, an NGO, and the Ramkrishna Mission for their support. [Neither of] these is attached to Christian missionaries. Yet their involvement did not generate any controversy."

Cardinal Toppo has said that the church is, "fully devoted in serving the poor," and that they will extend their, "fullest cooperation to the state."