Civic body to evaluate supply of flavoured milk to schools

MUMBAI: The city's civic body will evaluate whether to continue its scheme of providing flavoured milk to children in schools run by it after two incidents in the past week, when children showed symptoms of food poisoning after consuming the milk.
   
Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak said the proposal to withdraw the scheme from civic schools would be placed before the standing committee of the civic body on December 24.
   
"They will decide on whether it should be withdrawn," he said.
   
On Wednesday, 14 children from a primary school in the Nana Chowk of central Mumbai had to be taken to hospital after they exhibited symptoms of food poisoning. On December 14, 32 students of a school in Dadar had to be admitted to hospital after consuming milk in their school.
   
Phatak said they would also evaluate possibilities like providing nutritious biscuits or plain milk to the children.
   
The civic body would also consider providing a monthly stipend to the children in the form of a cheque so that they could purchase the milk themselves, he said.
   
The scheme to provide flavoured milk to civic school students, introduced this year with a budgetary allocaton of close to Rs 298 crore, was awarded to a local group who were to supply the milk from near Delhi.