MANGALURU: Minister for women and child welfare Jayamala Ramachandra on Monday kept a promise when she visited two anganwadi centres in the city. Having pledged to do so when she reviewed functioning of her department recently, the minister who arrived in the city on Sunday did so on Monday, by visiting the anganwadis at Bejai Kapikad and at Shaktinagar Padavu accompanied by Sundara Poojary, deputy director of the department.Jayamala interacted with anganwadi workers and those responsible for the mid-day meal scheme at these centres. Examining the food given to children at Bejai-Kapikad anganwadi centre, the minister inquired with the workers about hygiene and care taken in preparing the same. She also interacted with the children at the anganwadi and reassured herself from them first hand that the food given there was tasty and to their liking.Jayamala directed Sundara Poojary to clean up the area surrounding the Bejai-Kapikad anganwadi centre so that the children could indulge in outdoor activities as well. Directing the officials to stick to the prescribed dietary timetable for the children at the anganwadis, she said they could make changes to the menu based on local requirements and food habits, while instructing officials to serve buttermilk to children keeping humid conditions in mind.The minister also telephonically instructed Mangaluru South BEO to provide required land for the new anganwadi building at Bejai on the premises of government school there. At Shaktinagar, Jayamala instructed with anganwadi workers and children. She also examined the store room there and quality of food grains kept there. The minister also instructed the department officials to keep the anganwadi surroundings clean.Jayamala later visited the Rani Abbakka Tulu Study Centre and Tulu Museum at Bantwal . Thukaram Poojary, director of the Centre, former minister B Ramanath Rai accompanied the minister, who evinced keen interest in the artefacts preserved at the centre. Jayamala in fact took a liking to the portrait of Rani Abbakka, the warrior queen who took on the might of the Portuguese, much before the Indian independence movement that drove out the British from India even started.

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