Bathinda, May 26
Children coming to some anganwadi centres in the district are being served rotten eatables, which are playing havoc with their health.
Sources said at a few villages, sarpanches had banned distributing rotten eatables. Even though a few children got infection in their mouth after consuming smelly ‘gudpattis’, others are still eating the same at anganwadi centres.
The government provides eatables to expecting mothers and children in the age group of 0-6 at these centres. The government had started sending eatables to 645 anganwadi centres in Bathinda from October 1 last year.
At present, 21,209 children and 57,000 expecting mothers are being fed under this scheme. A private firm has been supplying these eatables to the anganwadi centres. Children are being provided biscuits and ‘gudpatti’, while expecting mothers are getting ‘panjiri’. ‘Gudpatti’ is being sent in sacks of 20 kg each. One such sack at Raikhana village’s anganwadi centre had the manufacturing date of December 2004, but the date was tampered with and extended to a “safe limit”. A foul smell was also emanating from the eatables stocked at anganwadi centres of Raikhana and Manakkhana villages.
Though the eatables kept at Raikhana centre have expired, children are still consuming these. Harpreet Kaur, a Dalit, said her child fell ill after consuming ‘gudpatti’ Amandeep Kaur’s daughter Jasveer Kaur also met with a similar fate. Sukhpreet Kaur’s two children consumed her ‘panjiri’ and fell sick. Panchayat member Kartar Kaur said the ‘gudpatti’ kept at the centre was stinking. These eatables were supplied to the centre on March 29. Sarpanch Jeeta Singh said the administration would be responsible for any untoward incident.
Gurdev Singh of Manakkhana said his grandson Luvdeep Singh fell sick after consuming ‘gudpatti’. Sarpanch Jarnail Singh said the government was sending poor quality eatables that had already expired. He also complained of a foul smell from eatables.
Similarly, at the anganwadi centre No. 109 at Jassipowali village, worms were spotted in a packet of ‘gudpatti’. When mother of four-year-old Gagan saw worms she
approached the centre in charge. The sarpanch was also called and shown the worms. When worms were found again in biscuits at the centre No. 108 in the same village, the sarpanch threw out the poor quality eatables from both centres. Sarpanch Gurjant Singh said he had also sent a complaint to the Chief Minister in this regard. At centre No. 63 at Sandoha village, some children got mouth infection after eating ‘gudpatti’. Here too worms were found in ‘gudpatti’.
At centre No. 119 of Madi village, officials ordered a ban on distributing eatables after worms were found in these. However, the District Programme Officer of the department, Ms Sunita, said eatables were checked at all centres and these were found to be okay. She said due to a shortage of sacks, the firm had sent eatables in old sacks and the eatables could still be consumed. She said wherever there were complaints, they would ask the firm to replace the stock.
CDPO Abhinash Kaur said children were falling ill due to summers and not because of eatables. The state president of the Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union alleged that the government was distributing “poison” in the name of diet to poor children. She also alleged anomalies in the purchase of these eatables and demanded a probe into it. She said the eatables lying at the centres was not even fit to be fed to animals.
When contacted, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Rahul Bhandari, said he had sent the CDPOs to the centres of these villages for looking into the matter. Later, the administration produced some letters signed by villagers of Raikhana, stating that eatables were okay. But, within the next few hours, the villagers rang up The Tribune office and said that the BDPO and the CDPO, Maud, had pressurised them to sign those letters.
The villagers, some of whom had signed the above mentioned letters, also faxed a signed statement saying that the BDPO and the CDPO, Maud, and Supervisor Jinderpal Kaur came to the angandwadi centre last evening. They alleged that the BDPO, who was inebriated, was threatening the anganwadi worker as to why she didn’t tell people that the smell emanating out of eatables was that of soyabean. “We pay you salary, then why don’t you talk in our favour,” he reportedly asked the worker.
They also alleged that the CDPO took away the rotten “gudpatti” along with her and the officials forcibly got thumb impressions of those villagers on the letters whose children didn’t even come to the anganwadi centre.
Interestingly, the letters signed by the villagers had been written by a single person. The DC has now asked the Talwandi Sabo SDM to probe the matter.
On the other hand, the state union president of the Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union has warned the BDPO, Maud, that if he didn’t apologise for his “misbehaviour” with the anganwadi worker in writing, the union would stage a dharna in front of his office.
Surprisingly, the officials sent by the DC were in so much hurry to hush up the case that they even got those people to sign letters who didn’t have a child. Jaspal Singh and Ajaib Singh have no kids. Another signatory, Hoshiar Singh’s youngest daughter studies in Class IX. Nachhatar Singh’s son studies in Class IV, while Jaspal Singh himself got married two months back.
