Apex court-appointed Commission pitches for Saraswati Vahinis to do the job
The Supreme Court-appointed Commission in the right- to-food case has asked the State Government for an explanation on the stalemate arising out of the issue of serving eggs in the schools. The Commission, apprehending possibility of the supply of eggs going into private hands, has strongly advocated to involve Saraswati Vahinis in the process.
Commissioners NC Saxena and Harsh Mandar, on September 16, sent a missive addressed to State Chief Secretary Jharkhand Sudhir Prasad demanding an explanation in the light of the Cabinet decision and chain of events thereafter. “We are pleased to hear that the Government of Jharkhand has decided to include an egg (or fruit) three times a week in midday meals for schoolchildren. This is an excellent initiative and in many States where this has been done, it has vastly contributed to make the midday meal scheme a success.
“However, we are deeply concerned….that an attempt is being made by private contractors to persuade the Government to float a tender for centralized distribution of eggs throughout the State, instead of eggs being bought locally by the Saraswati Vahinis,” reads the communiqué.
The Pioneer had on September 13 reported about the controversy erupted between the HRD Department and the Cabinet Coordination headed respectively by Education Minister Geetashree Oraon and Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
The decision of the Cabinet to provide eggs three days in a week to children belonging to primary classes through Saraswati Vahini was vetoed by the HRD Department and the Primary Education Directorate had returned the file to the Cabinet objecting to the execution of the proposal. Against the Cabinet’s nod for open purchase of eggs to be distributed among over 28.7 lakh children belonging to Classes 1 to V, the Department has pitched for tender option citing transparency. Rs 155 crore has been sanctioned for this purpose by the Government.
The high-powered Commission has asked the State Government to clarify whether there is any plan of floating a tender for the supply of eggs in the MDMs in Jharkhand and if so, the reasons behind adopting this arrangement instead of local purchase of eggs by Saraswati Vahinis. Hoping that good sense would prevail, the Commission red-flagged the contractor route terming it counter-productive which has not been successful in some other cases. “It is our opinion that there is no case for involving private contractors, who have repeatedly tried to invade child nutrition programme for profit-making purposes, to the detriment of young children. local women’s groups for their part have a good record of effective provision for MDM and Jharkhand’s own Saraswati Vahinis have earned praise from a recent Joint Review Mission under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan. They do not need any help from the private contractors to add an egg in the MDM three times a week,” says the Commission’s letter.
It is learnt that the Chief Minister following the objection of Oraon had sought the advice of competent officials who have argued for local purchase of eggs by Saraswati Vahinis as centralised distribution does not make sense for perishable commodities like eggs. Further, local distribution would generate employment for village women. Sources in the Government said that the matter was likely to come for discussion again before the Cabinet after getting the objections “in a proper format” from the HRD Department.