Urban News

Following the mid-day meal incident that left 127 civic school students ill on Friday, the civic health department has decided to direct all educational institutions to constitute a committee to check quality of food served to students on their premises. The incident has also brought to focus lack of coordination among departments concerned.

“It is mandatory for food-related business in the civic jurisdiction to have a licence. The education board never consulted or intimated the health department on appointment of women self-help groups for supplying mid-day meal,” said PMC health department chief, R R Pardeshi.

The urban community department had recently asked the health department to check whether the cooking by self-help groups was hygienic. “The health department, after inspection, conveyed to the urban community department that the cooking place of was not hygienic,” Pardeshi said.

There was no system to check food quality, he said. “All educational institutes would be asked to ensure no agency be allowed to serve food on their premises if they don’t have a licence from the civic body. The respective committees of the educational institute should check food quality as it is not possible for the civic administration to keep a check.”

Vilas Kanade who is in charge of the PMC urban community department on the other hand, said there was no clause in the agreement signed the education board that the agencies should have a food licence. 

Education Board official Ramchandra Jadhav said they were not responsible for appointment of agencies for mid-day meal. “We have been complaining to the civic body about the poor quality food served in mid-day meal scheme. There was no response from the administration,” he said, adding that the process for appointment of new agency has been started. The board has sought expression of interest from agencies that meet set norms, Jadhav said.

The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) has deployed about eighty buses solely to ferry school students. “Last year we could roll out students’ scheme without any issues. However, this year, there was a confusion in implementing this scheme as the two civic bodies had not taken a decision regarding the funding to be provided for that. But recently, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) conveyed us its plan to fund the scheme this year as well. Following this, we also started the procedure for the implementation of the scheme within the Pune municipal limits. We are in the process of distributing the passes to students,” Deepak Pardeshi, PMPML spokesperson said. However, since the PCMC did not take a decision whether to continue the scheme, students there are still deprived of this facility, because of the delay in decision. “Unless the Pimpri-Chinchwad civic body takes a decision regarding this, we cannot extend the scheme for those students.” However, when contacted, PCMC commissioner, Asheesh Sharma, said, “Even though we have not taken a decision on this so far, we are likely to do so by next week. The standing committee will pass this proposal next week and the students who approach, will definitely get the passes.”