Bureaucrats to supervise mid-day meals in Chandigarh

Chandigarh, Dec 25 (IANS) Middle-level bureaucrats in the union territory of Chandigarh will now supervise the preparation of mid-day meals for government school children in the city.

The Chandigarh administration has ordered that all civil servants from Haryana and Punjab cadre on deputation with the administration will visit the cooking institutes and schools to monitor the quality and hygiene of cooked meals under the mid-day meal scheme, an administration spokesman said here Thursday.

Any shortcoming found at any stage would have to be brought to the notice of Chandigarh's Home Secretary Ram Niwas for necessary action, he added.

Till now teachers and principals of government schools were assigned supervision of preparation of the meals but now even mid-level bureaucrats have been involved in the exercise.

The mid-day meal scheme has been implemented in several of the 100 plus government schools in the city. Children from poor families are served lunch under a central government sponsored scheme to attract them to come to school.