Days after senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal raised the issue of alleged “substandard panjiri” given to lactating mothers, pregnant women, and children in Punjab, the Centre has written to the state government, asking why the procurement of food items under the Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) programme was handed over to a private company after taking it from state’s cooperative, Verka.
The issue has hogged headlines in the state recently with Anganwadi workers alleging “rampant corruption” in the decision to take away the responsibility of supplying ‘panjiri’ (a nutritional supplement made using wheat flour, ghee and sugar) from Verka.
The ICDS programme, under which supplementary nutrition is provided to beneficiaries, is funded by the state as well as the Centre in a 60:40 ratio. In the letter, Union Ministry of Women and Child Development Minister Annpurna Devi asked the state why these allegations were surfacing.
Punjab’s Women and Child Welfare Minister Dr Baljit Kaur responded to the Centre’s letter on Thursday stating that Punjab had not given the contract to a private company but to Markfed, the Punjab State Co-op Supply and Marketing Federation Ltd.
Sources told The Indian Express that under the scheme, every beneficiary is to be given nutritious food items at the rate of Rs 8 each. These include ready-to-eat porridge packets with powdered milk and sugar and millets khichdi. There are 13 lakh beneficiaries of the scheme and they get panjiri, porridge and khichdi at 27,000 anganwadi centres in the state.
Seeking that the grant should be enhanced from Rs 8 per beneficiary, Kaur stated that Verka with its five panjiri manufacturing plants was not able to provide packets within Rs 8. On the other hand, Markfed was able to do this, the minister said.
The minister, it is learnt, has also written that a nutritionist had suggested that soyabean refined oil can also be used for preparing nutritious panjiri instead of desi ghee, which was far more expensive, and unaffordable within the grant given.
“Markfed agreed to supply panjiri within the monetary limit. Now, if they are outsourcing it from a private company, that does not mean there are some kickbacks involved. They do not have a plant to manufacture it. Verka had plants but they cannot prepare panjiri with soyabean refined oil. Their plants do not allow this. We had no option but to hand it to Markfed,” a source in the government said.
“We check the quality and the anganwadi centres have been asked to make videos of food items being supplied every day and to put them up on the official WhatsApp group. They have also been instructed to make sure that the food items do not have weevils or other insects as during monsoon, contamination is not unusual,” the source added.
Soyabean oil, less sugar – not for the Punjabi palate
A government source said that they had studied the entire issue and reached a conclusion that panjiri, prepared without desi ghee and enough sugar, did not suit the Punjabi palate. “The nutritionist told us that refined soyabean oil was no less nutritious. Also, they advised us not to use too much sugar as it was not good for children’s teeth,” an official said. “We have been getting reports from dentists that the meal was causing dental caries among children. Also, in the case of millets khichdi, there were complaints that this was dry. The use of hing (asafoetida) was also not suiting the Punjabi palate. The beneficiaries were finding it bitter. Hence, we have asked the cooks not to use it,” the official added.
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