Maha CM promises inquiry into ICDS 'irregularities'

Chavan said the inquiry will be initiated once the report of the Supreme Court-appointed Food Commissioner is made available to the state government.

"After we get the report, the inquiry will be ordered into whether the tender process was vitiated and whether nutrition was compromised," he said.

The report is said to have highlighted large-scale irregularities in implementation of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in Maharashtra.

While private contractors involved in supplying food made massive profits, poor children entitled to the benefit under the Anganwadi Scheme, were given food which is stale and low in nutritional value, the report is believed to have said.

The document was submitted to a two-judge bench, which is hearing an appeal against one of the food suppliers in Maharashtra whose contract was cancelled last year by the Bombay High Court.

It is alleged that private contractors in the state floated front organisations controlled by their kin to supply the supplementary nutrition products.