Hyderabad: In a shocking incident, ‘Bal Amrutham nutritional powder’ intended for distribution and to poor families to reduce malnutrition in children was being fed to cattle.
Hyderabad police seized 130 bags of ‘Bal Amrutham Nutrient Powder’ from a dairy farm in Dabeerpura of Hyderabad’s old city. Police arrested one person, Ansari Mohd Khan, 50, owner of Ansari Dairy Farm.
Hyderabad Police officials said that the Commissioner’s Task Force, South Zone Team, Hyderabad along with CDPS (Child Development Project) Officers and Dabeerpura Police conducted a joint raid on Ansari Dairy Farm, located in New Road, Chanchalguda and evaluated a large number of Bal Amrutham Nutrition. food is worth Rs 2 lakh.
Bal Amrutham is the weaning food introduced under ICDS to provide better supplemental nutrition to children between 6 months and 3 years. The weaning food is a preparation of wheat, chana dal, powdered milk, oil and sugar. It is fortified and therefore provides 50 percent of the iron, calcium, vitamins, and other RDAs children need per day. It is distributed in packages of 2.5 kg per child per month through the State Anganwadi Schools. Bal Amrutham is run by the Department for Women, Children, Disabled and Senior Citizens in Telangana.
In Telangana, the Department of Women’s Development and Child Welfare supplies about 2,500 tons of Balamrutham each month. This amount is supplied to more than 15 lakh beneficiaries through different ICDS centers in the state, the official said.
“Ansari is illegally collecting the dust packets from various schools in Anganwadi and using them to feed the cows/buffalo as feed on his dairy farm. She is being investigated to find out who benefited from the scam,” Deputy Police Commissioner Gummi Chakravarthy said.
Given its nutritional values and benefits, Balamrutham from Telangana Foods is continuously supplied to different districts of Andhra Pradesh.
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