Alleging that government was neglecting quality and other provisions of mid-day meal scheme Congress on Friday said if condition persists, Chhattisgarh might witness iteration of Bihar incident. Notably, about 23 kids died after consuming mid-day meal in Bihar recently.
“We have found irregularities and negligence in implementation of mid-day meal scheme in state. The government seems indifferent and reluctant in taking lesson from Bihar incident,” said Congress spokesperson Sushil Anand Shukla.
He pointed that 75% of the schools, where mid-day meals are served, did not have kitchen. “Hygiene is not being maintained in cooking, storing and serving food. Majority of schools lack adequate utensils. We have received several complaints pertaining to poor quality of food but no action has been taken against any guilty person by far,” he added.
He said the children never get meals according to prescribed menu. “The food quality is also compromised because the women self-help groups (SHGs), which are responsible to provide mid-day meals, do not get timely payment,” he said.
He informed that several SHGs of Mahasamund district had not received payment for the past two months. “This forced president of Jai Satnam SHG from Mudhena (Mahasamund) to mortgage her gold jewellery to buy ration for mid-day meals,” he said.
“The government has also failed to uphold quality of ready-to-eat packets given to pregnant women. A ready-to-eat packet given to one such pregnant woman Sunita in village Banshipur under Sonhat block (Koria district) contained dead frog when opened,” he said.
He said both mid-day meal scheme and ready-to-eat packet programme were more sensitive and linked to lives of innocents and hence negligence would not be tolerated in any of them.
He demanded to check irregularities in both the schemes and action against guilty persons. He said senior officials and minister incharges should also conduct sudden inspection to check quality of mid-day meals and ready-to-eat packets.
No comments:
Post a Comment