Govt sets up panel to monitor food quality

The death of over 20 schoolchildren due to contaminated midday meal in Chapra has prompted the Centre to set up a new committee which will closely monitor the quality of food being served to students under the scheme.

The committee, which will have at least 20 members both from government and civil society groups, is likely to be headed by the Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister, officials in the Ministry said.  

“We have decided to form another committee which will look into the qualitative aspect of the implementation of the programme, the quality of the food that is supplied, the effectiveness of the supply chain and the hygiene of the place where it is cooked,” HRD Minister MM Pallam Raju said.

The rules and guidelines for implementation of midday meal scheme provides for setting up various committees right from the school level to the centre for monitoring the implementation of the programme.  The new committee, to be set up at the centre, will supplement the efforts of the existing monitoring committee. It will meet once in every three months and take necessary action on reports and recommendations made by officials, individuals or independent agencies about the quality of food being served to children across the country.

The detail terms and reference as well as composition of the committee will be shortly finalised by the HRD minister, a source in the Ministry said. The Ministry decided to set up the committee as the HRD Minister felt need for tightening of the exiting monitoring mechanism especially with respect to the quality of food being served to schoolchildren as it has been a “neglected area” in many states.

“Schoolteachers, parents and local administration in states have to be sincere to ensure quality food is served to children but this does not happen in many cases. Chapra incident is basically a result of negligence at these levels,” Ministry source added.

‘Bihar was informed’

The Bihar government had been informed about the low quality of food being served to children in 12 districts including Chapra in April this year but this was apparently ignored by the authorities. At a Programme Advisory Board meeting on April 23 this year, the HRD Ministry had told Bihar that feedback from children indicated meals of poor quality and hygiene problems in these districts.

”Yes, apparently there has been. There were 12 districts that were identified and alerts were sent and Saran (hit by the incident) was among them," Raju told reporters when asked if the Bihar government had been intimated about poor quality of meal being served in Chapra.

The minister, however, maintained he did not wish to highlight the issue now and play a “blame-game” over it as the death of the children had shocked everyone.