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No ghee in panjiri, food items substandard too
Anganwadis across the state are serving panjiri made with refined oil instead of desi ghee. Before last year the panjiri and other food items were sourced from government run Verka and Markfed, but last year the contract was given to a Chandigarh based private firm.
Anganwadis across the state are serving panjiri made with refined oil instead of desi ghee.
Before last year the panjiri and other food items were sourced from government run Verka and Markfed, but last year the contract was given to a Chandigarh based private firm.
Although Department of social security and development of women and children claimed in a recent interview that refined oil was not used, the ingredient breakdown on the packets said refined oil.
All Punjab anganwadi mulazim union president Hargobind Kaur further claimed that all the five food items being served in the anganwadis, including dalia, khicdi, murmure and panjiri, were substandard and the children in the centres refuse to consume them.
“Earlier we got these products from Verka and Markfed. We would prepare them and give them to the beneficiaries, children and pregnant ladies. However, the new ready to eat products are very substandard,” she said
She alleged that quality went for a toss as the government outsourced the contract to the private firm, which we said was concerning in the first place.
“There are two government companies, Verka and Marked, who were providing the products. Verka manufactures its own panjiri. Then what was the need to opt for a private company,” she asked.
She also claimed that the private firm currently supplying panjiri was blacklisted by Verka a couple of years back after fungus was found in some of its samples.
On July 14, in Amritsar fungus was found in the raw material coming to the anganwadis and the workers refused to distribute it to the kids.
Kaur alleged that this was happening with the knowledge of the concerned minister and the chief minister (CM). “We have been protesting this since April. My service was also suspended on flimsy grounds for this protest. Markfed is under the CM, and this change can’t happen without his knowledge.
The contract for panjiri was taken from Verka and given to Markfed, but since it doesn’t have any plant for making panjiri, it outsourced to a private firm.
It is pertinent to mention that the supreme court had in a 2001 order directed that no contractors shall be used for supply of nutrition in anganwadis.
Social security and women & child development department principal secretary Raji Srivastava said, “The contents of the panjiri were as per the arrangement with Markfed.”
On why the contract was withdrawn from Verka, and given to Markfed, she said, it was no longer possible to continue as their pricing of panjiri didn’t fit cost norms anymore.
“We have our cost norms and that didn’t allow us to continue with Verka as their panjiri didn’t fit our norms.”
However, she said the department was open to Verka and looked forward to a meeting with them next week.
Bathinda member parliament Harsimrat Kaur Badal, on Tuesday, wrote to the union minister for women and child development, Annpurna Devi, to investigate the matter.
She even raised the issue in her speech in Parliament on Friday.
Earlier, Patiala MP Dharamvir Gandhi had written to Punjab social security and development of women and children department minister Baljit Kaur to act in the case.
