Civic body to probe mid-day meal 'scam'

Statesman News Service

MALDA, Sept. 26: In an apparent bid to prevent the Opposition from "politicising" the issue of alleged irregularities in utensil purchase for the mid-day meal scheme, the English Bazaar civic body chief, Mr Narendranath Tiwari, is likely to order an inquiry into the "scam" detected in three schools in Ward No 6 by the audit team recently. The Ward No 6 is under the control of an RSP councilor. A team of AG Bengal auditors had detected that authorities of the respective schools withdrew funds from the municipality for mid-day meal cooking. They, however, provided only dry rice to the students. The auditors had visited three schools and detected that the funds were adjusted in papers. The civic body chief, Mr Tiwari, said that action would be taken according to law after completion of inquiry. The Opposition councillors yesterday held a Press conference showing an abnormal bill of utensils for mid-day meal project which was submitted to the civic body chief for payment. They demanded vigilance inquiry into the scam.They alleged that the supplier had shown high prices for ordinary utensils in connivance with the civic body staff and ruling councillors. Opposition leader of the civic body, Mr DN Chaki, alleged that apart from the three primary schools in Ward No 6, many more schools are involved in the scam. It may be recalled that Opposition leaders of the Congress-led English Bazaar Municipality yesterday walked out of the board of councillors' meeting alleging misappropriation of funds in the name of implementing mid-day meal project.