Picture for representational purpose only.

BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government’s decision to introduce eggs in the state-run mid-day meal programme has sparked a major controversy yet again with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleging that the move would hurt religious sentiments and culture of the vegetarian children.

The state’s previous government, led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan , had removed eggs from the menu of mid-day meals in 2015 following protests by certain organisations with an assurance that it could be replaced with better vegetarian substitutes. However, with the number of malnourished children under the age of five years going above 42% in Madhya Pradesh, the woman and child development department has decided to introduce eggs in the meal from the current month.

"To control malnutrition in the state, we have decided to provide eggs to the children in the mid-day meal offered in the anganwadis from November. We aim at ending malnutrition," said state woman and child welfare minister Imarti Devi, on Wednesday.

The minister further said that egg is nutritious food and the best diet for malnourished kids. The department plans to include kids aged 3 to 6 years in anganwadis in the proposed scheme. Officials claimed that if kids below the age group of five years are fed eggs thrice a week, the state exchequer would have to spend Rs 500 crore additionally on the project.

The BJP, though, does not seem to be impressed with the idea of putting eggs in mid-day meal. After the minister's statement, BJP leaders alleged that religious sentiments would be hurt if the decision was imposed on vegetarian children.

"The Congress government is deliberately trying to trigger a political row through its decisions. There are vegetarian children in anganwadis and separate arrangement should be made for them as well. But it seems that the Kamal Nath-led state government is itself malnourished," said Rameshwar Sharma.

BJP state spokesperson Rahul Kothari alleged a conspiracy behind the decision. "The BJP government had decided to replace eggs with Moringa ( drum stick plant) which is considered as 'super food'. The idea also fetched several awards. But the Congress government, which was trying to sell chicken and milk from the same parlour and had to withdraw the decision after BJP's protest, is again trying to harm the religious culture by bringing eggs to the mid-day meal menu. This seems to be a bigger conspiracy to oblige big contractors," Kothari told TOI.

Minister Imarti Devi is, however, unrelenting despite the BJP's opposition. "We have taken several initiatives in over 300 anganwadis and we don't care about the opposition to this scheme. All we care about is the health of the children and that they get nutrition," she said.

