Bhubaneswar, Jan. 25: The state government has sought a report from the vigilance department on supply of sub-standard dal to schools under mid-day meal scheme.

“We are looking into the entire issue. We will find out a new procedure to purchase the dal. We are waiting for the vigilance report on this issue,” said chief minister Naveen Patnaik after presiding a meeting of the State Nutrition Council at the secretariat.

Director of vigilance department, Anup Patnaik, said, “We got evidence that low quality dal was being supplied. We already got inputs from the civil supplies officers. We will submit a detailed report to the government soon.”

Sources said dal was being supplied to schools in a clandestine manner. The suppliers showed samples of good quality dal before the purchase committee and later supplied sub-standard dal to schools. Each school is provided with 50kg of dal under the mid-day meal scheme.

As the students refused to eat the low-quality dal, it created problems in the mid-day meal scheme and reports of malnutrition reached the government.

It was also decided that iron folic acid tablets would be provided to the children, adolescent girls on fixed date of a every month. Those who are not studying in schools will be given the tablets through the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).

In the meeting, it was decided that a survey would be conducted to ascertain the nutritional status in each panchayat of the state. The number of nutrition rehabilitation centres will be increased from existing three to 22.