Taking advantage of a Government Resolution of October 2012, women and child development (WCD) department of the state has turned a blind eye to the question of food testing in the 96,820 anganwadi centres (AWCs) and 10,489 mini-anganwadi centres in the state. The GR states that instead of testing the food in laboratories,testing can be done manually by women representatives from the village itself. For kids in the age group of six months to three years,we give THR (Take Home Ration) and for the age group of three to six years,the local Self Help Groups (SHGs) procure raw items and make Ready to Eat meals at the anganwadi centres itself. Apart from this,to decrease malnourishment,health supplements and supplementary nutrition is given to children till the age of six years,lactating mothers and pregnant women from AWCs, said Ashok Mankar,Joint Commissioner,WCD department. Food and Drug Administration conducts surprise tests and our department also conducts surprise tests. Tests for quality of food in laboratories is tough. Every test requires at least Rs 3,2000 and SHGs do not have money. There is no budgetary provision for departmental testing of THR. The suppliers do submit the test reports when they supply the food but then the mata samiti (committee with 10 women representatives from that area ) is supposed to test the food and let beneficiaries take home the ration, said Mankar. Before the revised GR of 2012,as per a GR of October 2005,minimum two food samples per supplier per year was supposed to be sent for testing nutrition values. As per the audit report of the women and child development department,scrutiny of records in 19 out of 34 tests by Child Development Projects Officer (CDPO) revealed that the food samples were never sent for tests during 2007-12. In the remaining CDPOs shortfall in food samples ranged from 1.2 percent to 99 percent during 2007-12. Since October,no food sample has been sent for tests to laboratories,said officials. There are over a lakh AWCs in the state. Some are in places where there are no roads,electricity and in naxal hit areas. The FDA has only two food testing labs in the state,one at Pune and the other at Aurangabad. The food prepared by SHGs is perishable and hence by the time it reaches the labs,the food has gone bad. Hence regular testing of cooked food is not possible. As far as the THR is concerned,suppliers themselves give the test certificate and the FDA and our inspectors conduct visits to check if everything is in order, said Mankar. While some CDPOs have conducted lab tests of THR,they have conducted it at the same labs from where suppliers have got test certificate. Hence in these cases there arises a conflict of interest. But in the rest of the cases,CDPOs have not conducted any tests citing that suppliers had submitted test reports and there are no budgetary provisions for testing of THR departmentally. A surprise test was conducted by Food and Nutrition Board in April 2011 of two food samples in the state,and found that the samples did not conform to prescribed norms. There have also been complaints of low quality of food from various quarters including Anganwadi Karmachari Sangathna (AKS) members but nothing has been done about it. The audit further states that despite the inadequacies (in food samples) and provision of penalty in the procurement agreements,the department did not levy any penalty from suppliers for supply of THR of less calorific value. The department,instead,extended the validity of the agreements for a further two years. But when contacted officials from the WCD department said,We do not have the data of penalty levied on suppliers in the department because these are with the respective project officers. They look after the AWCs in their department and the penalty is also imposed by them. But we are sure that penalty is levied on the offenders.
