Keeping in view the recent tragic incidents related to mid-day meal across the country, Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Shivraj Patil on Friday directed the UT Administration to ensure that healthy and hygienic food is supplied to the students.
While reviewing the mid-day meal scheme in the union territory of Chandigarh, Patil directed the officials of UT Administration to buy modern equipments for the preparation and supply of mid-day meal to various schools of Chandigarh. The schools where food is cooked in the premises were directed to have hygienic kitchen, dinning rooms and special employees to serve the food to the students. About 75,000 students in the city are served mid-day meals for their lunch in Chandigarh.
During the review meeting, UT Home Secretary, UT Finance Secretary, MD CITCO Tanvi Garg, DPI (schools) among others were present. To ensure healthy and hygienic food to the students, the UT Education Department had last month decided to allow six government schools to cook their own mid-day meals.
Earlier, there were four institutes, including Dr Ambedkar Institute of Hotel Management in Sector 42, Institute of Hotel Management in Sector 42, Hotel Shivalikview in Sector 17, and GMSSS-47 (run by a private contractor), where mid-day meals were prepared and delivered to all government schools.
In the past, it was reported that the cooked food was kept in the open for hours before being transported to various schools and the meal was prepared in unhygienic conditions at GMSSS-47. Recently, insects were found in the mid-day meal of Government High School in Industrial Area-Phase I here.