BMC stays supply of milk to school students

Mumbai, Dec 20 (UNI) After two separate incidents in which Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation school students fell ill after consuming milk provided by the Corporation, last week, the BMC administration has decided to stop the supply of flavoured milk till Christmas, Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak announced today.

Speaking at a press conference here, Mr Phatak said the BMC administration did not want to be blamed for anything wrong ''that is why the decision has been taken.

The Standing Committee meeting will take place next week to decide about supplying milk or providing the students with any other alternative.

Mr Phatak said the Corporation may stop providing milk and distribute eggs, biscuits, bananas or cash at the end of each month to the students in order to help them have good nutrition.

The BMC is expecting reports from the Municipal laboratory and a decision on providing milk to students will be taken soon, he added.

Mr Phatak ruled out the possibility of contamination in the milk and said if it was true then many students would have been affected.

Doctors have given various reasons for the students falling ill including indigestion of the high content milk, allergy towards strawberry flavour and also consuming other eatables before and after consuming milk.

More than 4.5 lakh BMC school students were benefitted by the Corporation's free milk distribution scheme and the Corporation had alloted a budget of around Rs 300 crore for the scheme.

UNI