The Hindu : Row over mid-day meal continues

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 17, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Row over mid-day meal continues

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 16. Arguing that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi should not find itself "trapped'' in the infightings of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), the MCD Education Committee Chairman, Farhad Suri, today suggested that the proposal for distribution of mid-day meal to about 50,000 municipal primary students by Akshaypatra be withdrawn.

The recent MCD's decision in this regard had run into trouble after the ISKCON's Delhi unit alleged that Akshaypatra was not associated with it and in fact was fighting cases of forgery against one of its directors. The organisation, which runs a successful mid-day meal scheme in Bangalore, claimed it was part of ISKCON.

Though the final decision in this regard would be taken by the Municipal Commissioner, Rakesh Mehta, the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party supported Mr. Suri's move, which came after the issue was raised by the BJP Councillor, Onkar Singh Thapar. Referring to recent media reports, Mr. Thapar wanted to know what the reality was. "The civic body should not be part of any controversy,'' he said.

Conceding that there was big-fight between the ISKCON's Bangalore and Delhi units, Mr. Suri said: "Though our intentions are genuine and we want to provide mid-day meal to our students, we were unaware about this infighting. Under these circumstances, ideally we should not give the contract to Akshaypatra.'' The Leader of the Opposition, Subhash Arya, welcomed the decision.

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