Personally monitoring quality of food served to Army: Parrikar

Gandhinagar: Amid a row over a BSF jawan’s allegation of poor-quality food being served to paramilitary troops at border areas, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today said he personally monitors quality of food served to Army and has ordered serving of only FSSAI-approved chicken.

Speaking to reporters on sidelines of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, he said he would not be able to comment much about BSF as it comes under Home Ministry.

“But in last two years, for the Army we have been continuously evaluating that whether satisfaction level for the food being served has increased or not. I am myself monitoring it,” he said.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in 2012-13 had made certain observation in a report and “we are improving it”, he said.

“We have supplied frozen chicken to 26 centres. Now we have issued direction that in next two years FSSAI-approved frozen chicken is supplied to every unit. So that quality automatically improved,” he said.

BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav in a Youtube video alleged poor-quality food being served to paramilitary troops at border areas.

While the Home Ministry has ordered a probe into Yadav’s claims, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) too has sought a report from the ministry.