Social Security, Women and Child Development Minister Dr Baljit Kaur today claimed that the state government had taken several steps to resolve the shortage of ration supply at anganwadi centres, and the required ration was expected to reach the centres within a week.Notably, The Tribune has been prominently highlighting this issue for the past few days. The Punjab State and Chandigarh (UT) Human Rights Commission on Monday took suo motu cognisance of a news report published in The Tribune on September 13, “No ration, Jalandhar anganwadis serve biscuits, toffees to children”, highlighting the prolonged shortage of ration supplies at anganwadi centres. The commission has sought a report from the Secretary, Department of Social Security, Women and Child Development, Punjab, before the next date of hearing, October 21.In a five-minute video message on a social media platform, Dr Baljit Kaur today said the problem of nutritional supplies had recently been highlighted in reports and claimed that the disruption was linked to a change in the system of supplying food to the centres.She said supplementary nutrition, including ‘khichdi’, ‘daliya’ and other items, was earlier supplied through Markfed. However, she said anganwadi workers had raised several objections about the supplies. “Taking their feedback into consideration, the government stopped the Markfed supply in April. The stock already available continued to be used until the end of the first quarter,” she claimed.She further said that after that the department decided to introduce a different system. “Based on feedback from anganwadi workers, the government decided to provide wheat and rice to the centres so that food could be prepared locally for the children. Along with the ration, anganwadi workers were also provided Rs 8 per child per day to prepare and serve the food, said the minister.According to her, the implementation of the new arrangement was affected by delays in the release of funds. She said payments had to pass through the Centre Government’s bill approval and payment system ‘SPARSH’, under which bills have to be approved before funds are released. She pointed out that similar payment-related difficulties had affected other government schemes, including MGNREGA in Punjab.The minister said that the department had now got the bills approved and was working to ensure that ration reaches the anganwadi centres within approximately one week.She also shared the plans to overhaul the supplementary nutrition supply system, known as take-home ration. She said that tenders had been floated for all districts and suppliers would be required to establish plants locally, with a plant potentially serving one or two districts.”The move is expected to create employment opportunities and make it easier to monitor the quality of food being supplied. The management committees will include anganwadi workers and parents of children attending the centres, allowing them to monitor production and provide feedback,” informed the minister.She said that samples had already been sent to government laboratories to check quality and nutritional content, including protein and iron levels, and the reports from the laboratories had started arriving.The minister further assured that the government was working to provide quality supplementary nutrition to children, pregnant women and lactating mothers across the state and said the current difficulties would be sorted out soon.