Govt to check quality of food at social welfare dept hostels

BENGALURU: The state government has decided to conduct a food quality audit in hostels run by the Social Welfare Department. The department will monitor the quality of food served in these hostels.

The decision to conduct an audit comes after complaints were received about poor food quality and irregular meal timings at the hostels. The department has already started conducting audits across all districts in the state.

The Social Welfare Department will release weekly audit reports. As per the findings, five districts have received low rankings. Officials in these districts have been warned, and if the issues persist, action will be taken against them.

The department has decided to take action against officials if the hostel food quality does not improve after the warning. The question remains whether the hostel audit will provide a solution to the problem of hostel food.

In the state, over 2,800 hostels come under the purview of the Social Welfare Department. There were complaints about the quality of food and irregular meal timings in these hostels. To address this, the department has decided to conduct an audit of the food served in these hostels.

Officials in each district will have to upload photographs of the meals served in the hostels, three times a day, on an app developed by the department. The photographs will be used to rank the hostels based on their performance.

The hostels will be ranked into three categories — 95-100 per cent (excellent), 90-95 per cent, and below 90 per cent. Hostel officials who rank low will first receive a warning. If the situation does not improve even after the warning, a notice will be issued, and action will be taken against the officials.

The objective of the audit is to improve the quality of food and ensure that meals are served on time in the hostels.