The Chandigarh administration accorded approval to the IGP prisons, Chandigarh, to prepare and distribute nutritious food to 100 Anganwadi centres initially.Against the petition moved in the District Court to restraining the Burail Model Jail inmates from preparing food for Anganwadi Centres and Creches in Chandigarh, the department of Social Welfare of the Chandigarh Administration submitted that “No adverse report was received from the field functionaries as well as the parents of the beneficiaries”.
The reply was filed in the court of Civil Judge (Junior Division) Sanjay, where on Monday, the counsel for petitioner raised arguments over the replies filed by the Social Welfare department and the Superintendent Model Jail Burail.
The reply filed by Parminder Kaur, the deputy director of the Social Welfare department, Chandigarh, said that they were implementing the orders of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, as per which the Ministry is in process to consider collaboration with jails for preparation of high quality and nutritious food for distribution at Anganwadi centres, for beneficiaries under the ICDS programme. The letter read that the ministry had requested the director-in-charge of the ICDS in all the states and UTs to initiate dialogues with the jail department to explore feasibility and possibility for the preparation and distribution of nutritious food to the Anganwadi centres.
Thereafter, the Chandigarh administration was accorded approval to the IGP prisons, Chandigarh, to prepare and distribute nutritious food to 100 Anganwadi centres initially.
The reply further said that the food supplied to the Anganwadi centers were checked and tasted by the supervisor of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) every day. The supervisor also visits the kitchen of the Model jail when the food is prepared. Moreover, the quality of the food is checked by the CDPO, Anganwadi workers and helpers before distributing it to the beneficiaries in the Anganwadi centres.
The petition was filed by a Ramdarbar resident, Joginder Singh, who alleged that the jail authorities were not supplying proper food to the children and were not adopting the mid-day meal safety measures. Kumar had also alleged that the jail authorities were involved with criminals to supply them with drugs, mobile phones and other eatables, and there were chances that the jail inmates would mix poisonous substance in the children’s food.
The counsel for petitioner, advocate Raj Kishore argued, whether government officials had installed CCTVs at the location where the food was prepared, and where the food was loaded to be taken to the Anganwadi centres. After hearing the arguments, the court adjourned the matter for a hearing on September 25.
