➖ Mid-Day Meal and Anganwadi Crisis Exposes AAP Government’s Failure: Kewal Dhillon
Chandigarh, September 13:Taking strong exception to the serious crisis in the Mid-Day Meal and Anganwadi nutrition schemes in Punjab, BJP State President Kewal Singh Dhillon launched a sharp attack on the AAP government in the state. He said that the innocent children of Punjab are today paying the price for the negligence of the Bhagwant Mann government, which has been making tall claims about an “Education Revolution.”
State President Dhillon said that according to reports, cooking funds have been pending for months in around 1,435 primary and middle schools in Jalandhar. Teachers are being forced to spend thousands of rupees from their own pockets to purchase ration. He questioned: Is the job of teachers to teach children or to deal with bills and complications arising from government schemes?
He said that schools in Ludhiana are facing a situation where meals are being cooked on traditional stoves. The government, which issues menu instructions only on paper, must explain how nutrition will actually reach the plates of children.
Mid-Day Meal workers in Tarn Taran and Ludhiana are staging protests demanding a ₹10,000 monthly salary, DC rates, social security and insurance, resulting in disruption of the cooking and meal-preparation process.
Dhillon said that the supply of ration has come to a halt at 1,634 Anganwadi centres in Jalandhar. Due to the cancellation of tenders, children aged 3–6 years are being given toffees and biscuits instead of nutritious porridge and khichdi. Pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers are also being deprived of nutritional food.
Kewal Dhillon demanded that all pending funds, dues of teachers and workers, and payments to suppliers be released immediately. He questioned: When there is not even enough money for children’s food, ration and cooking gas, on what basis is the government making claims of change?
The menu should not exist only on paper; it must be visible on the plates of Punjab’s children.