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Now, 20-member panel to scrutinize midday meal quality

-The Times of India


NEW DELHI: In the aftermath of the Bihar mid-day meal (MDM) tragedy that resulted in the death of more than 20 children, the HRD ministry on Thursday announced setting up a new 20-member committee to go into the quality aspect of the MDM scheme nationwide.

The committee, to be headed by HRD minister M M Pallam Raju, would have secretaries of ministries of women & child development, health, food as members. Education ministers of few states like Bihar would also be in the panel. Members of civil society groups and food expert like Biraj Patnaik would also be committee members. The panel would meet every three months and would consider field reports from states.

Raju said the incident should not be used for blame game. He admitted that Bihar was alerted about unsatisfactory quality of food served in government schools in 12 districts, and the worst affected Saran was one of them.

In fact, in June 2009, Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) in its report on MDM in Bihar had pointed out problems with the quality of cooked food. Not only did CAG point out that Bihar implemented revised menu four months late in 2006 but there were several other gaping loopholes.

CAG said no monthly inspection of cooked meal was done by any medical officer in the test-checked schools between 2003 and 2008. "This indicated absence of monitoring of cooked meal provided to students," CAG said. It also said identification of under-weight children and regular health check up at school level was never done. De-worming medicines etc. was also not provided at any time though it is required once in six months.

CAG said in test-checked schools in Bihar no records were available which would indicate that quality and quantity of food was ever monitored at school level or by any other authority. Also no provision of additional nutrient in form of gram/gur/vegetable/fruit etc were noticed in any school though expenditure of Rs 59.87 crore was incurred on providing extra nutrient to 166.31 crore students between July 2007 and March 2008. "This indicates that benefit of providing extra nutrient did not reach the targeted students," CAG added.