The government on Monday informed the Rajya Sabha that
the Centre has asked the National Accreditation Board for Laboratories
(NABL)-recognised laboratories to collect samples from the field for
testing on parameters such as microbiological-presence or absence of
e-coli, chemical parameters such as moisture content, fats, proteins and
calorific value of the mid-day meals.
“These reports
have been useful for enhancing the effectiveness of the scheme. The
State/Union Territories have also been requested to consider engaging
Food Safety and Standards Authority and the Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research institutes or NABL recognised laboratories for
carrying out sample checking of mid-day meals, to ensure quality meal to
the children,” Human Resource Development Minister M.M. Pallam Raju
said in a written reply.
Mr. Raju said there is a
detailed mechanism for supervision of the mid-day meal scheme through
periodic reports and monitoring at the local level through the school
monitoring committees as well as by the State government officials.
Additionally, the Centre also ensures independent monitoring through 41
monitoring institutes such as IIT Chennai, Visva Bharati, and the XLRI.
The
Joint Review Missions (JRM) visit States at regular intervals. In the
current year, seven JRMs have been conducted, and 13 more are planned.
In addition, surprise visits are made from time to time; three such
visits have been carried out in the current year in Maharashtra, Jammu
and Kashmir and Assam, he said.
The scheme’s
implementation is monitored by the district, State and national level
steering-cum-monitoring committees. The district level vigilance and
monitoring committee meeting under the chairmanship of the Member of
Parliament from the district has also been activated, the Minister said
in his reply.
This comes in the wake of the death of 23 children in a school in Chhapra in Bihar after consuming mid-day meal.
In
response to another question, Minister of State for HRD Shashi Tharoor
said the HRD and Tourism Ministries were working together on imparting
training for cooks engaged under the mid-day meal scheme.
He
said the preparation of a hygienic and wholesome meal depended on the
knowledge and skills of the cook-cum-helper. Accordingly, on the request
of the HRD, the Ministry of Tourism has agreed to provide training to
selected cook-cum-helpers as master trainers through Hotel Management
Institutes and the Food Craft Institutes. A 10-day full time course will
be organised which will include knowledge dissemination regarding the
caloric and nutritive values, the methods of cooking for retaining the
nutritive value of cooking ingredients, awareness regarding the issues
of malnutrition and also the benchmarking of nutrition levels and the
importance of regular washing of hands.
Centre ensures independent monitoring
HRD and Tourism Ministries working on training cooks
