BY SUDHIR K. SINGH BHOPAL/KHANDWA With polls in Madhya Pradesh less than three months away, non-government organisations (NGOs) are again alleging the growing incidence of malnutrition deaths in the state. Much like during the runup to the 2003 elections. The local media has been playing up the deaths of 12 infants due to under-nourishment in five villages of the Khalwa block in Khandwa districts, 70 km from the district headquarters. A calamity bordering on an epidemic is in the offing, it was claimed. Tribals, who constituted 91 per cent of the local populace, had job cards sans work, and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme had utterly failed in providing the necessary succour. Contractors had cornered all the work, leaving villagers to twiddle their thumbs. The husband-wife team of Seema and Prakash, who run the Spandan Samaj Seva Samity, told this newspaper that malnutrition deaths usually occurred during the monsoon, a fact they had been zealously highlighting since 2002. There was an acute shortage of food in the area. Locals had gone without their regular rations this month. With the result that the newlyborn went unfed for days.