NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has said that suppliers of rotten chana (chickpeas) and other food items to school children as part of their mid-day meal kits under the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM-POSHAN) scheme during the COVID pandemic cannot be permitted.
Justice Subramonium Prasad noted that “the supply of rotten chana or vanaspati and dalda cannot be condoned and persons who indulged in such activities cannot be permitted to continue to supply” as it brings a bad name to a noble cause initiated by the government.
The court’s observation came while it was hearing a plea by an entity challenging its debarment by the Delhi government’s Directorate of Education from supplying mid-day meals under the scheme as the supplier purportedly had sub-standard provisions. “The seriousness of the allegations in the case at hand and its impact on children, who are the future of the country, cannot be overlooked. It was the duty of the petitioner to ensure that nutritious meal is provided to children for their development,” the order said.
As per the allegations, during a series of ‘Jan Sunwai” (public hearings) of social audit under PM-POSHAN scheme conducted on September 2, 2022, the chief consultant of the scheme was informed that the dry ration kits supplied by the petitioner/society to the school had vanaspati/dalda in them in place of refined oil despite the NGO mentioning refined oil in the summary slip.
The petitioner assailed its consequent debarment on grounds that the chana packets were opened seven months after delivery and therefore, rotting could not be ruled out, adding that the concerned authorities had not specified that only refined oils were to be supplied and not vanaspati. In order to ensure that the nationwide shutdown of schools due to COVID-19 did not detrimentally affect children, an interim policy measure was introduced under PM-POSHAN scheme for the supply of dry ration kits to schools, the court said.