Hiccups in mid-day meal scheme

There are 62 MDM centres in Ahmedabad, of which only 48 are functioning. As many as 13 centres have stopped functioning since August because of a gas leak from the common pipes in the kitchens. Gas is taken to the kitchen through one common pipe which draws LPG from 10 cylinders.

An official of the scheme said leaks could not be repaired because the party which had been given the maintenance contract was yet to visit these centres. 8220;The contractor attends centres one by one and, therefore, it takes time to reach all the centres,8221; said an official at the MDM office.

But the contractor says he cannot repair the pipes unless a written order is issued since repairing one leak means a Rs 3,500-plus job and this amount is not easily sanctioned by officials. There is anyway no official at present who can okay the funds.

Besides the 13, there is one more 8212; the Kankaria centre 8212; which will have to be closed from Friday as it has only one day8217;s oil stock left, according to the staff manning the centre. Of the 10 LPG cylinders, eight are empty and have not been refilled. The lines have not been replaced since their installation in 1985, a cook said.

Kalubhai Parmar, who is attached to the Bardolpura centre, says his centre has been closed since July and there are a dozen more such centres which have been closed because of faulty LPG pipes, lack of water, kitchens which don8217;t have a shed and broken compound walls.

Parmar says the administration has not even paid salaries since August even though Diwali is drawing near and in such a situation, there is no question of attending to repairs and maintenance.

Monitoring has also been neglected as there is currently only one inspector who is responsible for checking all these centres.

If run on a full scale, the centres need a steady monthly supply of 50 tonnes each of wheat and rice besides other ingredients. Inadequate wheat and rice supplies have caused a shortage of food and many children are being left out. The notification for the scheme, a process which is repeated every year, was issued on July 1 but only on paper. 8220;We were asked to report only on August 14,8221; admitted a cook at one of the centres.

Chaman Kumar, Managing Director of Gujarat State Civil Supplies Corporation GCSC, said the corporation was one of the suppliers and it was supplying edible oils and pulses to MDM centres. He said wheat and rice were supplied by the Central Government. About allegedly erratic supplies, he said this had happened in the past too when the Corporation had asked the MDM centres to source their short-term supplies from the open market.

Admitting that the mid-day meal scheme had been affected in the recent past, Deputy Municipal commissioner J G Hingrajia said this was partly because of diversion of the services of several officials to election work in various constituencies.

The officials assigned the task of handling this scheme are generally reluctant to take over because they are not given incentives like vehicle facility which are given to their counterparts serving in other departments. They take posting at MDM centres as a punishment, Hingrajia pointed out. MDM Commissioner Tapan Ray was not available for comment.