JOIN USBuoyed by the successful experiment of buying farm fresh vegetables for the government run hostels from Horticulture Produce Cooperative Marketing Society (Hopcoms), the district administration is gearing up to extend it to some other hostels in Mysuru district in the second phase.
Disclosing this at the monthly Karnataka Developmental Projects (KDP) progress review meeting held at Zilla Panchayat here on Monday, Deputy Director of Department of Social Welfare Saraswati said that the department was planning to cover a total of 125 hostels, starting from February 1 in the second phase.
Around eight months ago, the departments of Social Welfare, Backward Classes, Tribal Welfare and Minorities, started buying vegetables from Hopcoms, against private vendors.
A total of 44 hostels, including 16 under department of Social Welfare, 25 under Backward Classes, two under Tribal Welfare and one under Minorities, were covered at that time, and the response was encouraging.
Recently, it was decided to extend the supply to additional 81 hostels, taking the total number of hostels to be covered in the next phase to 125 to 140 hostels, laying more thrust on the hostels in taluk and district headquarters.
This includes a total of 71 hostels under Social Welfare department, 50 under Backward Classes, four under Tribal Welfare and two under Minorities Welfare.
In all, the department of Social Welfare alone has 85 hostels coming under its ambit, including college hostels, Morarji Desai Model Residential schools and Kittur Rani Channamma Schools, pre and post matric hostels, having around 8,847 inmates.
It is closely followed by Backward Classes-86, Tribal Welfare - 46, and four under Minorities, accommodating close to 12,000 students pursuing education in different stages.
Saraswati said, as and when the demand arises, officials will provide the list to Hopcoms in advance, to enable the smooth transition of the same.
The vegetables are supplied thrice a week, with the department spending an approximate of Rs 10 lakh on the same, per month.
Anganwadi model
That apart, the government run hostels have been asked to explore the possibilities of adopting anganwadi model to buy food (barring rice and wheat that is supplied under public distribution system) ingredients like oil, ghee, grams among others to prepare food items served at the hostels.
ZP President Pushpa Amarnath who mooted the idea suggested that all the four departments go for a decentralised tendering system, and procure the food from MSPT that is currently supplying the packaged food to anganwadi kendras.
In the existing system, food is supplied under a centralised system by Karnataka Small Cooperative Consumer Federation.
DH News Service