STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Alleging that sub-standard eatables were being provided by the past government regimes to the poor kids in schools under Mid Day Meal Scheme, the Citizens’ Forum Jammu, in a request to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed complained that the previous regimes did not spare even poor children of this state and supplied unhygienic and rotten food in the shape mid day meals.
The forum lamented that no action has yet been taken against the guilty. “We do not call it a mismanagement or irresponsible attitude of the previous government but connivance or liberal free hand given to the officers and their contractors of the Social Welfare Department to supply in short quantity and that too expired nutrition items through Anganwari Centres in schools,” a handout of forum said.
It was further alleged that previous Government failed to submit utilisation certificate and make its contribution of ten percent to the scheme, therefore the Union government stopped release of the current installment of funds and the scheme is starved and whatever funds are available are being diverted to henchmen and middlemen.
Citing Bihar Mid Day Meal tragedy in which toll crossed scores of deaths due to poisoning which was purely due to suppliers and contractors, the forum demanded from union government to set up centralised kitchens for providing hygienic and nutritious food to school children as a part of mid day meal.
“The scheme has been adopted and started by many state governments like Maharashtra, Bihar, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and others. Naandi’s Centralised Kitchen exemplifies a more sustainable Mid Day Meal Model in Hyderabad for the last 10 years. The average cost to feed a child per year comes to Rs. 440/only. One kitchen can cater to a cluster of 20-25 schools within a radius of 10-15 kilometers”, the handout added.
Citizens’ Forum also proposed a Book Bank for poor children in their respective schools. “Himachal Pradesh government provides even the uniforms to the school children,” the handout further informed.
The appealed was jointly forwarded to Prime Minister and Chief Minister by R.K Chadha President Citizens’ Forum, ADGP (Retd) S.S Wazir, Dr. R Madan, General Secretary, Sanjiv Kerni, Advocate S.S Lehar, Arun Sharma (Retd.) Chief Engineer, R.K Handa (Retd) Vice Chairman JDA, S.R Sudhir (Congress leader) Nirmal Kamal (BJP leader) Manjit Manocha former Secretary Amar Singh Club, M.S Kapoor (Retd) Engineer J.S Chauhan, Advocate Aditya Sharma, Kewal Mahajan, Ramesh Gupta and others.