New Delhi: Cooks engaged in midday meal scheme will be trained by the human resource development (HRD) ministry in association with the tourism ministry, parliament was told yesterday.
The HRD ministry has requested the tourism ministry to provide a 10-day training programme to selected cook-cum-helpers who are engaged in cooking midday meals in schools under the scheme, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
“The process of training has started and a group of 30 cooks will be given training in two institutes — Hotel Management Institutes and the Food Craft Institutes. The state governments and union territory administrators have been requested to nominate 30 cook-cum-helpers from their state for training,”
he said.
Tharoor said the course would teach methods of cooking for retaining the nutritive value of the ingredients, as well as the importance of regular washing of hands, health and hygienic practices and communication skills.
The move comes after last month’s tragedy in Bihar, in which 23 children lost their lives after consuming contaminated food in the midday meal.
Yesterday, the Bihar government asked the Criminal Investigation Department to probe instances of water poisoning in schools in the state, the police said yesterday.
Reports of children falling ill after drinking water from hand-pumps were received from at least 50 schools in across the state over the past few days.
IANS
