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MCD not to give eggs to students

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI MARCH 24. Following widespread opposition, the Leader of the House in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and MCD Standing Committee Chairman, Ram Babu Sharma, today announced that the civic body would not distribute boiled eggs or egg curry to students of municipal primary schools in the Capital.

At the Standing Committee meeting held here today, all the Councillors except Razia Sultana opposed the move to include eggs in the mid-day meal stating that eggs are non-vegetarian and the civic body cannot force people to eat such a diet.

Initiating the discussion, the MCD Standing Committee Deputy Chairman, Ashok Jain, said he was receiving protests letters from a large number of parents against the civic body's move. His party colleague, Pratap Narain, proposed that milk be provided to students in place of eggs. Opposing the move, the senior BJP Councillor, Vijender Kumar, alleged that the elected representatives were being kept in dark on the issue. "This is a non-vegetarian diet and we are not convinced with the argument that these can be considered as vegetarian,'' he said. The Congress Councillor, R.L.Ahuja, claimed that the issue had divided people on religious grounds.

It is only Ms. Sultana who supported the move and said that parents in her area would welcome distribution of eggs in the MCD schools. "You can have a survey in my area,'' she said.

In his response, Mr. Mehta informed the House that the civic body was carrying out a sample survey in MCD schools to ascertain the views of parents. "A final decision in this regard has to be taken by the Standing Committee. We are only bringing views of all the concerned parties before making any formal proposal in this regard before the Committee,'' he said, adding that the NGCC has proposed to give as many as five lakh eggs to MCD free on an experimental basis.

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