Rich and powerful use NGOs to steal MCD students’ food to
23 Oct 2012 6:40 AM IST
[Millennium Post Investigation]
Mid-Day Meal Scam: Part- II
Read Part-I, Part-III, Part-IV, Part-V, Part-VI & Part-VII
The loot in the mid-day meal scheme in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) schools that Millennium Post exposed in its Monday's edition is taking place due to nexus among babus, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), business honchos, politicians and lobbyists. For this investigation, this newspaper got in touch with the senior members of these NGOs to know their version, but did not entertain the request beyond answering a few perfunctory questions.
The NGOs which bag the contract to prepare and dispense food for the mid-day meal scheme are supposed to get supplies of grains directly from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) in the packing it makes available. But, the NGOs have understanding with flour-making companies. The investigating team found bags of flour, rice and semolina (suji) of big companies rather than those of the FCI in the stores of these NGOs.
The grain bags the NGOs pick from the godowns of the FCI do not reach their stores; instead they are diverted to the store houses of these flour mills and food companies, from where they get branded wheat flours, branded semolina and clean rice as per their requirement. Millennium Post reported on Monday, about half of this grain is not used for providing mid-day meals to MCD students: instead, this is sent to open market markets through an alliance with big brands in the business. Furthermore, these private companies take Grade A wheat and rice that the FCI issues the NGOs and supply only low-quality wheat flour, suji and cleaned rice for mid-day meals. It may be noted that the centre prescribes these NGOs to directly take the supplies from the FCI, thus making it illegal for the supplies to be diverted to a different venue.
This practice is generally hidden in obscure account books of these NGOs, which they do not open even to the government-appointed monitoring institute, like the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) in the case of Delhi schools. An expert team of the CSDS that visited such kitchens is quoted as saying in a report of the Programme Approval Board (PAB) of the Ministry of Human Resource Development: 'The centralised kitchens did not share any information regarding accounts during the visit. … All accounts, stock and registers maintained by the voluntary organisation should be open to inspection by officers appointed by the government.'
Moreover, the governmental agencies have ignored to ensure multiple vendors of dispensing food for the scheme. In written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on 21 August 2006, the government elaborated the issue of assigning supply of cooked mid-day meals. 'The guideline envisage that the responsibility for cooking as for as possible be assigned to local women's Self Help Groups (SHG), Youth Clubs affiliated to Nehru Yuvak Kendras, Village Education Committee, School Management-cum-Development Committee, Parent Teacher Associations, Mother Teacher Associations, or good NGO's where possible,' reads the reply submitted by the then minister of state for the Ministry of Human Resource Development D Purandeswari. Its also names 10 NGOs in Delhi which were assigned to supply mid-day meals to over 10,000 students.
However, the engagement of suppliers lies within the domain of civic bodies, which, in the case of Delhi, chose only the NGOs for the task, ignoring every other category.
In the scam that the mid-day meal scheme has become in Delhi, the NGO that benefited the most was Stri Shakti. It was allocated 2.75 lakh students under the scheme. The Mumbai-based NGO made a foray in the mid-day meal scheme of Delhi in June 2006 and presently has three kitchens in the city–in Alipur village in north Delhi, Gokalpur village in east Delhi and Ranhola in Nangloi.
Earlier, it served in almost all zones of MCD, but after its tri-furcation, it is serving in the North Delhi and South Delhi Municipal Corporation areas. This group also runs the canteen of the Delhi Secretariat and provides food and nutritional support under the Anganwadi and other schemes of the government. It also works in other states.
The trust is managed by its chairperson Maninder Kaur Bedi, who is said to be politically connected and having easy access to the corridors of power. She resides in Mumbai but occasionally visits Delhi.
The Delhi unit of the NGO is under one of the eight directors, Sarabjit Kaur alias Sonia and Jaspreet Singh, Manager looks after day to day activities. ‘We have a contract with a trusted flour mill. It’s very personal and I can’t reveal the name,’ said a senior officers of Stri Shakti.
Ekta Shakti Foundation (ESF) is the philanthropic arm of AFP Manufacturing Company Pvt Ltd, a sister concern of Aggarwal foods, besides a chain of restaurants in the brand name of Makhen Restaurants, Appointment Restaurants, Longue and Bars. The CMD of the group, Anil Aggarwal, is also the chairman of ESF and all office bearers of the trust have their own business ranging from real estate to manufacturing and retail. The group has one kitchen in Matiala of SDMC area. Another businessman, Harish Goel, is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the group, with over a dozen businessmen as board members.
During our investigation, we managed to get the name flour mill with which Ekta Shakti Foundation (ESF) has signed the contract–Rajdhani Flour Mills.
We also noticed packets of wheat flour and Suji of Rajdhani brand during our visit to these kitchens. Another NGO which have contract with Rajdhani is ISKON Food Relief Foundation, headed by Sharad Rishi Das. Its semi-automatic kitchen at Aali village, has been allocated 1.59 lakh students of SDMC. The group also has contract of around 10 lakh student in Bihar and also venturing to supply MDM in other states like Jharkhand and Gujrat.
Maitree Research and Development Foundation has its kitchen in Budh Vihar in NDMC area and is, at present, serving meals to 85,000 students. The owner of Bengal Sweets in Peetam Pura is the promoter of this trust, who started the association with MCD since 2004. Mukesh Gupta, president and chairman of the trust is the cousin of owners of Bengali Sweets in Bengali market in New Delhi area. In due course of time, Mukesh Gupta opened his own flour mill and launched Maitri Food Industries in 2011 with his father Shri Bhagwan Garg and two younger brothers- Arun Garg and Sanjay Garg. The flagship product of the group is Shri Maitri Brand Atta.
The next in the list is Jay Gee Humanitarian Society, headed by famed builder of NCR Suraj Goel. The group was established in 2004 and since then associated with MDM scheme of MCD. It was discontinued in 2008 by MCD but has been recently allocated 60,000 students of SDMC for three years.
However, the group had continued its services for the primary and upper primary schools of Delhi government and other schemes of food and nutrition. The big names in real estate sector, Supertech, BPTP, Shipra, and India Bulls, are its clients.
Surya Charitable Welfare Society has its kitchen in Budhpur village at G T Karnal Road. The trust is chaired by a businessman Govind Maheshwari and his younger brother Rajkumar as member of the board. Rajkumar did not reveal the name of other members but said all of them have their own businesses.
The next in the list is Bhartiya Manav Kalyan Parishad (BMKP) based in Mandoli in east Delhi. C K Aggarwal, a retired engineer of MCD, is the president of BMKP. Besides serving MDM to 78,000 students of east Delhi, the group also has contracts in several districts of western Uttar Pradesh like Buland Shahar and Bagpat. According to sources, the contracts of the group with flour mills have been changing- Rajdhani, Maruti, Tajmahal, Victoria. The trust also managed grant from Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) for kitchen construction ans also supplies food for Aganvani, and other programmes.
Dalit Manav Uthathan Sansthan, is reportedly run by a serving engineer of MCD, Pradumn Tiwari and the kitchen is located at Chand Bagh on Karawal Nagar Road in east Delhi. This group has a contract for flour and Suji supply with Shakti Bhog Atta, and presently entrusted with 70,000 primary school student of EDMC.
The trust also have contract of supplying MDM to the schools of Delhi government, Aaganvani, and several districts in eastern and middle Uttar Pradesh. Before Shakti Bhog the trust had such contacts with Rajdhani and other groups.
Rajdhani and other groups have not mentioned the names of these NGOs in their client list on their website.
All kitchens supplying meals to MCD schools started their operation in 2003 when MCD started supplying cooked food to the student of its primary schools. At the time, around 36 NGOs were supplying meals to MCD schools, which was reduced to 11 when MCD formally signed the contract with them for three years in 2005.
Mid-Day Meal Scam: Part- II
Read Part-I, Part-III, Part-IV, Part-V, Part-VI & Part-VII
The loot in the mid-day meal scheme in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) schools that Millennium Post exposed in its Monday's edition is taking place due to nexus among babus, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), business honchos, politicians and lobbyists. For this investigation, this newspaper got in touch with the senior members of these NGOs to know their version, but did not entertain the request beyond answering a few perfunctory questions.
The NGOs which bag the contract to prepare and dispense food for the mid-day meal scheme are supposed to get supplies of grains directly from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) in the packing it makes available. But, the NGOs have understanding with flour-making companies. The investigating team found bags of flour, rice and semolina (suji) of big companies rather than those of the FCI in the stores of these NGOs.
The grain bags the NGOs pick from the godowns of the FCI do not reach their stores; instead they are diverted to the store houses of these flour mills and food companies, from where they get branded wheat flours, branded semolina and clean rice as per their requirement. Millennium Post reported on Monday, about half of this grain is not used for providing mid-day meals to MCD students: instead, this is sent to open market markets through an alliance with big brands in the business. Furthermore, these private companies take Grade A wheat and rice that the FCI issues the NGOs and supply only low-quality wheat flour, suji and cleaned rice for mid-day meals. It may be noted that the centre prescribes these NGOs to directly take the supplies from the FCI, thus making it illegal for the supplies to be diverted to a different venue.
This practice is generally hidden in obscure account books of these NGOs, which they do not open even to the government-appointed monitoring institute, like the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) in the case of Delhi schools. An expert team of the CSDS that visited such kitchens is quoted as saying in a report of the Programme Approval Board (PAB) of the Ministry of Human Resource Development: 'The centralised kitchens did not share any information regarding accounts during the visit. … All accounts, stock and registers maintained by the voluntary organisation should be open to inspection by officers appointed by the government.'
Moreover, the governmental agencies have ignored to ensure multiple vendors of dispensing food for the scheme. In written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on 21 August 2006, the government elaborated the issue of assigning supply of cooked mid-day meals. 'The guideline envisage that the responsibility for cooking as for as possible be assigned to local women's Self Help Groups (SHG), Youth Clubs affiliated to Nehru Yuvak Kendras, Village Education Committee, School Management-cum-Development Committee, Parent Teacher Associations, Mother Teacher Associations, or good NGO's where possible,' reads the reply submitted by the then minister of state for the Ministry of Human Resource Development D Purandeswari. Its also names 10 NGOs in Delhi which were assigned to supply mid-day meals to over 10,000 students.
However, the engagement of suppliers lies within the domain of civic bodies, which, in the case of Delhi, chose only the NGOs for the task, ignoring every other category.
In the scam that the mid-day meal scheme has become in Delhi, the NGO that benefited the most was Stri Shakti. It was allocated 2.75 lakh students under the scheme. The Mumbai-based NGO made a foray in the mid-day meal scheme of Delhi in June 2006 and presently has three kitchens in the city–in Alipur village in north Delhi, Gokalpur village in east Delhi and Ranhola in Nangloi.
Earlier, it served in almost all zones of MCD, but after its tri-furcation, it is serving in the North Delhi and South Delhi Municipal Corporation areas. This group also runs the canteen of the Delhi Secretariat and provides food and nutritional support under the Anganwadi and other schemes of the government. It also works in other states.
The trust is managed by its chairperson Maninder Kaur Bedi, who is said to be politically connected and having easy access to the corridors of power. She resides in Mumbai but occasionally visits Delhi.
The Delhi unit of the NGO is under one of the eight directors, Sarabjit Kaur alias Sonia and Jaspreet Singh, Manager looks after day to day activities. ‘We have a contract with a trusted flour mill. It’s very personal and I can’t reveal the name,’ said a senior officers of Stri Shakti.
Ekta Shakti Foundation (ESF) is the philanthropic arm of AFP Manufacturing Company Pvt Ltd, a sister concern of Aggarwal foods, besides a chain of restaurants in the brand name of Makhen Restaurants, Appointment Restaurants, Longue and Bars. The CMD of the group, Anil Aggarwal, is also the chairman of ESF and all office bearers of the trust have their own business ranging from real estate to manufacturing and retail. The group has one kitchen in Matiala of SDMC area. Another businessman, Harish Goel, is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the group, with over a dozen businessmen as board members.
During our investigation, we managed to get the name flour mill with which Ekta Shakti Foundation (ESF) has signed the contract–Rajdhani Flour Mills.
We also noticed packets of wheat flour and Suji of Rajdhani brand during our visit to these kitchens. Another NGO which have contract with Rajdhani is ISKON Food Relief Foundation, headed by Sharad Rishi Das. Its semi-automatic kitchen at Aali village, has been allocated 1.59 lakh students of SDMC. The group also has contract of around 10 lakh student in Bihar and also venturing to supply MDM in other states like Jharkhand and Gujrat.
Maitree Research and Development Foundation has its kitchen in Budh Vihar in NDMC area and is, at present, serving meals to 85,000 students. The owner of Bengal Sweets in Peetam Pura is the promoter of this trust, who started the association with MCD since 2004. Mukesh Gupta, president and chairman of the trust is the cousin of owners of Bengali Sweets in Bengali market in New Delhi area. In due course of time, Mukesh Gupta opened his own flour mill and launched Maitri Food Industries in 2011 with his father Shri Bhagwan Garg and two younger brothers- Arun Garg and Sanjay Garg. The flagship product of the group is Shri Maitri Brand Atta.
The next in the list is Jay Gee Humanitarian Society, headed by famed builder of NCR Suraj Goel. The group was established in 2004 and since then associated with MDM scheme of MCD. It was discontinued in 2008 by MCD but has been recently allocated 60,000 students of SDMC for three years.
However, the group had continued its services for the primary and upper primary schools of Delhi government and other schemes of food and nutrition. The big names in real estate sector, Supertech, BPTP, Shipra, and India Bulls, are its clients.
Surya Charitable Welfare Society has its kitchen in Budhpur village at G T Karnal Road. The trust is chaired by a businessman Govind Maheshwari and his younger brother Rajkumar as member of the board. Rajkumar did not reveal the name of other members but said all of them have their own businesses.
The next in the list is Bhartiya Manav Kalyan Parishad (BMKP) based in Mandoli in east Delhi. C K Aggarwal, a retired engineer of MCD, is the president of BMKP. Besides serving MDM to 78,000 students of east Delhi, the group also has contracts in several districts of western Uttar Pradesh like Buland Shahar and Bagpat. According to sources, the contracts of the group with flour mills have been changing- Rajdhani, Maruti, Tajmahal, Victoria. The trust also managed grant from Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) for kitchen construction ans also supplies food for Aganvani, and other programmes.
Dalit Manav Uthathan Sansthan, is reportedly run by a serving engineer of MCD, Pradumn Tiwari and the kitchen is located at Chand Bagh on Karawal Nagar Road in east Delhi. This group has a contract for flour and Suji supply with Shakti Bhog Atta, and presently entrusted with 70,000 primary school student of EDMC.
The trust also have contract of supplying MDM to the schools of Delhi government, Aaganvani, and several districts in eastern and middle Uttar Pradesh. Before Shakti Bhog the trust had such contacts with Rajdhani and other groups.
Rajdhani and other groups have not mentioned the names of these NGOs in their client list on their website.
All kitchens supplying meals to MCD schools started their operation in 2003 when MCD started supplying cooked food to the student of its primary schools. At the time, around 36 NGOs were supplying meals to MCD schools, which was reduced to 11 when MCD formally signed the contract with them for three years in 2005.
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