Mohammed Sajid & Tarun Kartick
Port Blair, Aug 26: With the Mid Day meal being in news in the National as well as the local media everybody around India is conscious with what is happening around them in the Govt. Schools with the meals provided to innocent school students.
It has been learnt from various sources that in many places Palm Oil is being used for cooking Mid-Day meal, whereas as according to government norms only Vegetable Oil must be used for the same purpose.
The best example of this is the government schools of Neil Island. It was found by Andaman Sheekha that Mid Day supplier in Government School of Neil Island uses Palm Oil for cooking food. Sources told Andaman Sheekha that a recent check conducted by the Doctor of Neil Island found this as this but for reasons unknown this matter as not been communicated to Education Department.
Neil is just an example, as prices of commodities are increasing day by day many such suppliers are using Palm oil for cooking Mid-Day meal.
The disadvantages of using palm oil are severe and cause problems in the long run. The saturated fat content in Palm oil is too high to be part of a healthy diet. Too much saturated fat can lead to heart problems. It can raise cholesterol, palm oil may reduce the ability of the blood to clot and cause many other severe problems.
The administration should also issue warning to all the suppliers of Mid –Day meal, against use of Palm oil in food.
When Andaman Sheekha contacted Mr. Sashi Kumar, Assistant Director, Education (Planning) and informed him about the use of Palm Oil he informed us that the Department has no such information about use of Palm Oil for cooking Mid-Day meal.
“If media has any information they should raise it and we will take action against the defaulters,” he said.
Considering the corruption in the Mid-Day meal contracts throughout the country the Andaman and Nicobar Administration must set an mechanism to check the quality of Mid-Day meal more frequently, even in remotest school of this Union Territory, so that incidents like Bihar is not repeated here.
not only in schools but even the anganwadis are unhygenic. The plates and utensils are not cleaned properly children are served from only one plate. The ration and eggs provided by the govt. are being sold by the anganwadi helper and worker. very pathetic.