Mid-day meal dominates NDMC, SDMC agenda

The issue of providing clean and nutritious mid-day meal to students of government schools dominated the North and South Delhi Municipal Corporation today.
Raising the matter in the Standing Committee meeting of the North corporation, leader of the House Mahendra Nagpal drew attention of the members to the poor nutritional quality of food being served to children.
"The kitchens where the food is produced are also not clean. The water being used is also contaminated and the chapatis are too hard to chew," he said.
Earlier in March, an NDMC report had said only seven out of 80 samples of mid-day meals taken during the past one year have passed the minimum requirements for both adequate protein and calorie content. However, the food was not found to be contaminated or adulterated.

"There is a need to conduct surprise checking of kitchens and schools to make sure the food being served is up to the standard," Nagpal said.
Meanwhile, South Delhi Municipal Corporation's Education Committee chairman Satish Upadhyay inspected various kitchens where NGOs prepare mid-day meals.
The officials accompanying him collected samples of the meal being prepared for five schools of Central Zone for testing.
Upadhyay also directed that full weekly details of mid-day meals be displayed on notice boards.