More trouble for Nandi Foundation

CONGRESS CORPORATOR Atul Shukla on Tuesday accused the Nandi Foundation of serving ?sub-standard inedible food? to primary school students under the Government sponsored mid-day meal scheme.

CONGRESS CORPORATOR Atul Shukla on Tuesday accused the Nandi Foundation of serving “sub-standard inedible food” to primary school students under the Government sponsored mid-day meal scheme.

“Thousands of students are being fed under-prepared chapattis, watery dal and a coloured gravy passed off as a vegetable dish by the Nandi Foundation which is charging the IMC lakhs of rupees for preparing the meals,” said the ward 21 corporator while addressing an impromptu press meet at the Press Club.

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Sharma, accompanied by employees of Government Primary School No 27, Neelkanth Colony, showed chapattis to the pressmen claiming them to be from a batch supplied to the school earlier in the day.

Pointing to the wet, clearly under-prepared chapattis, the Corporator said the semi-cooked food had resulted in scores of students falling victim to stomach ache and diarrhoea.

“The food tastes so bad that even cows refuse to eat it and the Foundation is feeding these to innocent children,” accused an irate Sharma.

The corporator said he came to know of the abysmal quality of meals when he was approached by employees of the school after a written complaint to the Municipal Commissioner P Narhari on January 12 failed to have the desired effect.

Free lunch is provide to nearly 50,000 primary school students of 289 government schools, 41 aided schools and 8 madarsas located within municipal limits.

The meals are prepared by Nandi Foundation, a Hyderabad-based NGO, at a centralised kitchen at Hawa Bangla, which charges the IMC Rs 1.25 per meal per student.

Promise
THE CHAPATTIS seem undercooked only because they are not smeared with ghee after preparation. The (chapatti-making) machine prepares 10,000 rotis in an hour. When such vast quantities are prepared it is possible that a few chapattis may come out undercooked. However, I will personally supervise the meals ad strict action would be taken against the NGO if meals are found to be sub-standard.
-Devkishna Sankhla
MiC member incharge of Education