New Delhi, July 18
The Centre today decided to constitute a permanent committee under the chairmanship of Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister to review the implementation of the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) programme and ensure quality, safety and hygiene standards.

HRD Minister MM Pallam Raju told The Tribune that the committee would be permanent in nature and would hold quarterly reviews of the quality, hygiene and safety elements in the world’s largest school feeding programme that reaches over 10 crore students in 12 lakh schools every day.

The minister said there were clear lapses on the part of the Bihar Government, which had recently been warned of deficiencies following negative reports by agencies appointed to monitor the progress of the programme. The Centre has 41 independent research agencies that review the MDM in states regularly.

Raju said all ministries concerned, including Social Justice and Women and Child, would be represented on the new committee whose terms of reference would be drawn soon.

The committee will comprise Director, National Health Institute; Director, National Institute for Nutrition; and head, Food Safety and Standards Organisation besides some independent experts such as Jean Dreze, a welfare economist who works with Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.

“The committee will monitor physical progress under the MDM. The ministry has sent circulars to schools asking them to make safe drinking water available,” Raju said.

Amidst reports of poor quality of meals being served in MDM programmes in various states, the ministry has written to the Chief Secretary of Maharashtra asking the state to put safety procedures in place after a Central team found pests infesting pulses served to children.

“The team visited a Nanded warehouse and found ‘tur’ dal being supplied to be of poor quality and pest infested,” the letter states.