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No egg curry for MCD school students

By Lalit K. Jha

NEW DELHI APRIL 11 . Even before it could take off, the decision of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to provide egg curry as mid-day meal to the students of its primary schools has been shelved. The scheme was to start on a trial basis from next week.

Though there had been opposition from political parties and a number of religious organisations from the very begining, the decision to drop the idea was taken following the findings of a survey report among parents of municipal schools children in which 50 per cent of the respondents opposed egg as mid-day meal.

Further, an influential doctors' association had also opposed the earlier MCD decision arguing that egg contains high quantity of cholesterol which was not good for the health of students as this would increase heart-related ailments among children.

Senior MCD officials said the civic body was exploring other options as they were duty-bound to implement the recent Supreme Court directive to provide hot-cooked meals to the municipal students. So far the civic body had been providing biscuits, fruits and other dry items to its more than eight lakh students in over 1,800 schools as mid-day meal.

The decision to distribute egg curry to municipal students was taken after the National Egg Co-ordination Committee (NECC) approached the MCD in this regard with the argument that this was the best option for the civic body to provide prescribed quantity of energy and protein to children within the stipulate Rs. 2 per child per day. The NECC also offered to give five lakh eggs to the MCD free of cost to begin with.

However, the decision was opposed by Municipal Councillors from both the ruling Congress and the Opposition BJP by arguing that this would hurt the religious sentiments of a large number of people. Even though the NECC claimed that egg provided by them were non-fertilised and thus vegetarian, the Councillors and also representatives of a large number of religious organisations in particular those from Jainism were not convinced and said that egg for the masses was considered as non-vegetarian diet. It was only Razia Sultana, the Congress Councillor from East Delhi, who supported the decision.

Following this, the Municipal Commissioner, Rakesh Mehta, decided to conduct a sample survey among the parents of children studying in municipal primary school. "The survey revealed that at least 50 per cent of the parents opposed distribution of eggs on religious ground. Thus, we have now decided to drop the idea altogether,'' a senior MCD official said.

Meanwhile, in another development in this field, the Delhi Government has refused to increase the allotment of fund for the mid-day meal from Rs. 22 crores to Rs. 66 crores per annum as was requested by the MCD. A meeting of senior officials from the MCD and the Delhi Government chaired by the Delhi Chief Secretary was also held in this regard, but not much progress was made, the official said. Another meeting has been scheduled for next week.

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