Central forces directed to maintain food quality

NDRF Commandant visits mess on ANU campus, checks food quality and interacts with staff

NDRF 10 th Battalion Commandant Prasanth Dar inspecting the quality of provisions in the NDRF Cooperative Stores on ANU campus in Guntur district on Tuesday.

Days after a Border Security Force (BSF) jawan complained about the poor quality of food being served to the Army personnel forcing the Centre to order an inquiry into the allegations, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Commandant Prasanth Dar made a surprise visit to its canteen and checked the quality of dishes.

BSF constable Tej Bahadur Yadav, who was posted at the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, uploaded videos taken by him, alleging that troops were served bad quality food and jawans were forced to go on empty stomach sometimes.

Surprise visit

The Ministry of Home, which ordered a probe into the allegations, instructed all the Central forces to maintain standard in food served at canteens.

Commandant Dar along with Deputy Commandants Kuldeep Singh, Santosh and Madhusudhan Reddy went to the staff mess, subordinate officers’ mess, cooperative stores, wet canteen and the entertainment hall, located on the Acharya Nagarjuna University (ANU) campus in Guntur district on Tuesday.

“We received instructions from Home Ministry on maintaining food quality in messes.

NDRF is using branded rice, pulses, oil, wheat flour and fresh meat and vegetables. Only purified water is being supplied in our canteens,” the Commandant said.

The mess staff explained the menu for the day: ‘roti’, ‘dal’, ‘steam rice’, ‘bitter guard curry’, curd and banana.

The Commandant tasted the dishes and expressed satisfaction.

When he inquired with the jawans about the quality of food served, they said the dishes were good.

Nutritional diet

The officers then walked into the kitchen and inquired about sanitation. He directed the mess in-charge officer to maintain standards and not to compromise on food quality.

“We serve non-vegetarian dishes for five days in a week, egg curry on every Sunday and vegetarian dish on Tuesdays.

Fruits will be served along with regular menu every day for maintaining a nutritional diet.

Chef will prepare South and North Indian dishes as jawans from different States are serving in NDRF,” the Commandant told The Hindu .

As many as 1,100 personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force, Border Security Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Central Industrial Security Force and Sashastra Seema Bal comprise the NDRF 10th Battalion, which operates in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana during emergencies and natural calamities.