Manish Sisodia tastes "sub-standard"meal at Delhi government school
"Overall quality of the food is bad. When we can't eat this food, how can we serve it to our children?"
By TNN | Updated:
NEW DELHI: When deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia scooped rice out of a vat at a government school in his constituency on Saturday afternoon, he didn't expect a sublime flavour, but he wasn't prepared for its "ghatiya" taste either. Sisodia, who had come to Rajkiya Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya near Mangalam Crossing in West Vinod Nagar, east Delhi, for a surprise check on the midday meal served there, said the rice was "half-cooked".
"Overall quality of the food is bad. When we can't eat this food, how can we serve it to our children?" the minister asked the school principal.
Sisodia said although teachers and principals were not responsible for the quality of food supplied by NGOs, schools should check its quality and inform the authorities concerned if it is not acceptable. He asked the school principal to ensure that students were not served "ghatiya" (substandard) food.
The government will soon review the midday meal scheme to improve the quality of food supplied to schools, Sisodia said. While accepting that providing good quality meals to children on a budget of Rs 5 per head was difficult, he said food had to meet the prescribed standards.
Earlier this month, Department of Education (DoE) had directed principals to install CCTV cameras and form emergency response teams for children falling sick after eating contaminated midday meals.
In November 2014, replies obtained using the RTI had revealed that 88% of midday meal samples had failed the test in the past five years. The RTI replies from DoE showed that out of the 2,244 midday meal samples sent for testing in five years, only 246 passed.
In 2010, a total of 352 meal samples were sent for testing and only 19 passed. In 2013, as many as 502 samples failed out of the 626 sent. DoE fined all the contractors whose samples failed the test.
"Overall quality of the food is bad. When we can't eat this food, how can we serve it to our children?" the minister asked the school principal.
Sisodia said although teachers and principals were not responsible for the quality of food supplied by NGOs, schools should check its quality and inform the authorities concerned if it is not acceptable. He asked the school principal to ensure that students were not served "ghatiya" (substandard) food.
The government will soon review the midday meal scheme to improve the quality of food supplied to schools, Sisodia said. While accepting that providing good quality meals to children on a budget of Rs 5 per head was difficult, he said food had to meet the prescribed standards.
Earlier this month, Department of Education (DoE) had directed principals to install CCTV cameras and form emergency response teams for children falling sick after eating contaminated midday meals.
In November 2014, replies obtained using the RTI had revealed that 88% of midday meal samples had failed the test in the past five years. The RTI replies from DoE showed that out of the 2,244 midday meal samples sent for testing in five years, only 246 passed.
ADVERTISEMENT
In 2010, a total of 352 meal samples were sent for testing and only 19 passed. In 2013, as many as 502 samples failed out of the 626 sent. DoE fined all the contractors whose samples failed the test.
Download
The Economic Times Business News App for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.
The Economic Times Business News App for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.
Download
The Economic Times News App for Quarterly Results, Latest News in ITR, Business, Share Market, Live Sensex News & More.
The Economic Times News App for Quarterly Results, Latest News in ITR, Business, Share Market, Live Sensex News & More.
Related Articles
'Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke's post for AAP's Manish Sisodia before leaving for studies in US emerges: 'No distance will weaken my commitment...'2026-05-21T04:39:41Z- Delhi HC seeks stand of Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia in criminal contempt case2026-05-19T06:20:46Z
- After Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia to also boycott Justice Sharma's court2026-04-28T19:05:28Z
ADVERTISEMENT
