Eggs would soon be served in Government schools as part of mid-day meal. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who was once against serving eggs, has now agreed to serve the portion rich diet for the children after getting a Central Government advisory.
Chouhan is learnt to have agreed on serving eggs in mid-day meal to the children after meeting with Union Minister Maneka Gandhi in New Delhi a few days back. Meanwhile, pujaris and Opposition Congress have started opposing the move of the State Government.
Recently, the announcement that Dalits would be made pujaris was widely opposed in the State by the Brahmin community. On Sunday a delegation of the pujaris called on the Chief Minister in this regard who told them that no such instructions were given by him. Besides, Chouhan assured the pujaris that whatever propaganda is made over the issue is misleading.
Now, the new controversy has erupted over feeding eggs to the schoolchildren in mid-day meal. Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi had officially written a letter to the Chief Minister drawing his attention towards the problem of obesity in children. "The use of food with more fat, salt and sugar is badly impacting the health of children in the country. Keeping in mind this a high-level committee has been constituted. The committee recommended to ban junk foods like potato chips, carbonated cold drinks, noodles, pizza, burger, chocolates, chewing gums, jalebi, imarti, gulab jamun etc from the menu of children. Besides the committee advocated feeding eggs to the children, so that their health did not get deteriorated," said Maneka in her letter.
Notably, the recent report of the Union Health Ministry has also mentioned the problem of obesity in children.
Now, the Chief Minister who was opposed to feeding eggs after getting Maneka's letter agreed to include eggs in the mid-day meal. Though, the issue was raised earlier due to malnourishment but on that occasion Chouhan pressed the issue strictly. The secretary of the Chief Minister, Vivek Agarwal, in a note-sheet to the school education department asked to implement Union Minister Maneka Gandhi's recommendations.
Though the initiative has started facing opposition not only from the pujaris but the Opposition Congress has also joined hands with them.