The Hindu : Officials taken to task over mid-day meal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 17, 2003

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Officials taken to task over mid-day meal

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI JULY 16. Senior officials of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi were today pulled up by the Leader of the House and Standing Committee Chairman, Ram Babu Sharma, for their inability to distribute mid-day meal in all its primary schools.

Making a suo moto statement in the Standing Committee meeting at Town Hall here, Mr. Sharma warned that such an apathetic attitude would not be tolerated for long.

``Mid-day meal should have been distributed from day one. I do not want to hear any procedural delay. You officials have been always giving some reason for delay in its implementation,'' said Mr. Sharma.

When the MCD officials tried to justify the delay by arguing that some other organisation had now agreed to supply the food at a much lower rate, Mr. Sharma directed: "I do not want to listen to any excuse. The order must be placed within three days.'' This was agreed upon by the Municipal Commissioner, Rakesh Mehta.

Mr. Sharma said if the orders were not placed in three days as was assured by Mr. Mehta, the Standing Committee would hold an inquiry in this regard. "We will not tolerate if students of the municipal schools, who mostly come from poor socio-economic background, are not given mid-day meals despite having funds for the same. We will not allow this to go waste as was during the previous BJP regime,'' he said.

Of the nearly 1,900 municipal primary schools, the MCD has begun providing cooked mid-day meals in less than 400 while for the rest the civic body was to give biscuits, fruits and other items which has not yet begun. Cooked food is being distributed as per the direction of the Supreme Court. This would be slowly extended to all schools.

Later in the meeting, replying to a short-notice inquiry on availability of electricity in municipal parks, community centres and schools, Mr. Mehta said all efforts were being made in this regard.

Of the 1,283 school buildings, electric fans were to be repaired in 109 schools. Similarly of the 4,084 fans in the community centres, only 758 were to be repaired.

On frequent power cuts in Town Hall, Mr. Mehta said the civic body had recently installed a generator. "It is within the guarantee period. On June 26, it went out of order. This has gone for repair. For the time being, the company has installed another generator,'' he said.

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