Civic body ends agency services in four zones

Concerned over the incidents of food poisoning in the mid-day meal,the Pune Municipal Corporation that implements the scheme in civic schools has discontinued the services of the agency in four of the ten zones.

Concerned over the incidents of food poisoning in the mid-day meal,the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) that implements the scheme in civic schools has discontinued the services of the agency in four of the ten zones. It is expected to appoint a permanent agency in two months.

Several incidents of food poisoning in the past two years have raised doubts over implementation of the scheme. There have also been cases of no food licences for agencies involved in executing the scheme.

On directives of the state government,the PMC had given responsibility of executing the scheme to women self-help groups but none of them had the mandatory food licences. The administration later issued food licences to selected women self-help groups after getting the conditions fulfilled. The PMC has still not decided on appointing a permanent agency for implementing the mid-day meal scheme. As of now,it has decided to continue with Savitri group,a federation of women self-groups. However,their services have been discontinued for four of the ten centres, said Dnyaneshwar Molak,joint municipal commissioner.

The mid-day meal advisory committee has decided to make a temporary arrangment till July and will take a decision on appointing the agency for the rest of the year, Molak added.

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