News Tamil Nadu

“Ink Colour Outside The Eggs Seeped Inside Due To Rain”, DMK Min Geetha Jeevan Explains Why Mid-day Meal Eggs Were “Rotten”

November 15, 2023
The Commune

In recent days, 2,115 eggs supplied to government school noon-meal centers in Erode district’s Kodumudi and Modakkurichi blocks were found to be rotten during boiling for serving. Weekly, around 92,000 eggs are delivered to primary and middle schools for the mid-day meal program. Cooks and organizers reported the issue, leading to the discovery of 1,348 rotten eggs in 27 schools in Modakkurichi taluk and 767 in 13 schools in Kodumudi taluk. The supplier replaced the spoiled eggs, and samples were collected for testing. Weather conditions may have contributed to hen infections, posing health risks to students. Incidents of school children falling ill after consuming rotten eggs have been reported in the past, prompting concerns about food safety in government schools.

In response to this, Geetha Jeevan, Minister of Social Welfare and Women Empowerment of Tamil Nadu claimed the eggs seemed rotten because the ink used to identify the fresh eggs “seeped” into the inside and that is what caused the colour to be so. Speaking to news reporters, she said, 

“There was a complaint from the BJP. The head of the district took action to get all the eggs from the egg supplier – all 96 eggs were replaced. He was given a show-case notice. The eggs were sent to the food security department for inspection. The eggs were supplied to the Tamil Nadu government, it was equivalent to three days of supply per week – Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday. It is a rule to colour the eggs as per the day. This is done to prevent using an old/expired egg. The order was issued in 2006. The eggs were coloured black that day. The Tamil Nadu government stamp was also put on each of the eggs. It was raining heavily that day. There was no tarpaulin and the eggs became wet. Owing to this, the black dye seeped in and the eggs developed a colour inside. This was investigated by the food security department and a report was published on this. Some people are hell-bent on finding a reason to criticise the government and they made a big issue out of this. The truth is totally different, everything is functioning as per rules. We are providing the students with good quality boiled eggs only.”

Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party President K Annamalai had called out the local administration for serving rotten eggs to children as a part of the midday meals scheme. It is a matter of wonder that colours on the outside of the egg, put on the hard eggshell can seep into the egg, are eggs so porous one wonders. Netizens found this amusing and called out her ignorance.

According to an RTI filing regarding the Tamil Nadu government’s procurement of eggs for the midday meal scheme, the DMK Stalin government had given contracts to the same companies that Stalin accused of corruption when he was in opposition.

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