Delhi Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said on Friday that the Delhi Government is talking to the Centre about the possibility of providing packed food to the students for mid-day meals.
The Minister’s commants came in the wake of allegations that the non-government organisation that supplied the mid-day meal which left about 120 students of a government school ill at Trilokpuri on November 26, had returned to serve the students again.
While refuting the allegations raised by BJP MLA from Trilokpuri Sunil Vaidya, Mr. Lovely clarified that the NGO concerned had been blacklisted and was not serving meals anymore.
Mr. Vaidya had charged that just five days after the tragedy, NGO Raghuveer Singh Sewa Samiti had returned to the school to serve mid-day meals to the students. He said it was really sad that safety of the students was being compromised in this manner.
Responding to the matter raised during special mention, the Minister said the NGO had been blacklisted following the incident. He said students were also found to have suffered from “psychological problems.”
“We had postponed the mid-day meal scheme and reviewed the manner in which the food was being prepared and served. A general order was also issued and all the NGOs involved in the mid-day meal were warned that such an incident would result in immediate blacklisting.’’
The Minister added that talks were on with the Centre for providing packed food as mid-day meal.
As for action against the NGO concerned, he said a First Information Report has been registered and declared that the presidents of the NGOs would be booked in the event of such an incident.
Mr. Vaidya, however, said outside the House that while he could not reply to the Minister’s claim as the matter was raised under Rule 280, the fact was that the NGO had come back to the school and had to be physically stopped from serving food to the children there again.
