BJP workers along with city residents on Thursday protested against the UT Administration at the Government High School in Industrial Area-I here where insects were found in the mid-day meal.
After getting information about contaminated mid-day meal, BJP workers reached the school premises and raised slogans against UT Administration.
Senior BJP leaders condemned the negligent attitude of the officials concerned of the Department who are supposed to check the food before serving it to various schools. They demanded immediate and stern action against the erring officials.
The BJP leaders said that if the Administration cannot provide healthy food to the students under mid-day meal scheme, the scheme should be withdrawn and the students should be given cash amount so that the parents can give their child health food with the cash amount given to their children.
BJP district president Shakti Devshali said that this is not the first time, but earlier also several residents of the area complained about the same, but the school authorities covered up the matter.
The supply of mid-day meal was also stopped on the demand of activists of BJP on Thursday.
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. These schools included Government Model Senior Secondary School Sector 44, Government Model Senior Secondary School Sector 47, Government Model Senior Secondary School Sector 15, Government Model High School Sector 42, Government Model High School Sector 38, and Government Senior Secondary School Sector 26 (Timber Market).
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. About 70,000 students in the city are served mid-day meals for their lunch in Chandigarh.
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.