India Sets Up Another Committee To Monitor Midday Meal The Indian government decided to set up a committee to review the implementation of its flagship midday meal scheme and monitor better the quality of food served and ensure hygiene standards. Human Resource Development Ministry, which pilots the programme, claimed that it had alerted 12 Bihar districts after shortcomings were found in executing the scheme. "What has happened is an unfortunate incident. We are pained by the death of young children and 23 of them. The focus should be to see it does not recur", Human Resource Development Minister M M Pallam Raju told reporters here as he announced the decision to set up the committee. The committee is expected to supplement the efforts of the existing mid-day meal monitoring committee which meets twice a year and warns the states if there are any shortcomings. "We have decided to form another committee which will look into the qualitative aspect of 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," he said. Officials said the committee could be headed by the Minister and consist of about 20 members both from the government and from the civil society group. "The expectation is that the committee would be genuinely critical of what is happening," they said, adding it would meet once in every three months. Asked if any warning was issued to Bihar by the existing committee earlier this year after some shortcomings in the implementation of the programme were identified, Raju replied in the affirmative. "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," he told reporters on the sidelines of a function. He, however, said they do not wish to highlight the issue right now and play a blamegame over it as the death of the children have shocked all.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 07:17:37 +0000
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