ADILABAD: Telangana Food Commission chairman K. Thirumal Reddy expressed his displeasure over officials and elected public representatives for failing to implement mid-day meals in the last 16 months in schools and also for not conducting health screening under RBSK during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said that the mid-Day meal should have been implemented for children and anganwadis should function as nutritional food was necessary for these sections in the fight against the virus.
He insisted on the effective implementation of Food Security Act 2013, which can help improve the health of children, women and those suffering from anemia.
During a review meeting on Saturday, he asked Bheempur ZPTC Kumra Sudhakar why he did not seek continuation of the mid-day meal scheme when schools remained closed and why he did think of alternative ways.
He told this correspondent that ‘mid-day meal means a lot for poor children and anganwadis for poor women. Only 22 lakh school children from poor backgrounds are covered under the mid-day meal scheme in government schools out of a total of 60 lakh children studying in various schools in the state.
He opined that lack of mid-day meal to the students and closure of Anganwadis would naturally affect the health of these sections since they get some nutrients through these schemes.
Thirumal Reddy inspected anganwadis in two mandals to study about the implementation of Food Security Act 2013.
He said getting food was a constitutional right under Article 21. The Supreme Court, several High Courts and the National Human Rights Commission had expressed concern over non-implementation of mid-day meal scheme in government schools during the pandemic.
