The Odisha government has issued a directive to all government and non-government aided colleges, instructing them to reduce cooking oil consumption and avoid items like ‘puris’, ‘vadas’, and ‘bondas’ from breakfast menus in their canteens.
In a letter issued on Friday, Higher Education Department Deputy Secretary Ramesh Chandra Behera said that the world has endured recurring supply chain disruptions and economic crises ever since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The letter highlighted that the ongoing conflict in Ukraine created severe supply-side shocks in food, fertiliser, and fuel, which have been further intensified by recent geopolitical conflicts in Iran.
“No country in the world is immune to the economic impact of the crisis,” he said in the letter.
He further noted that several countries have implemented various steps to manage fuel and commodity demand, with India similarly encountering the adverse fallout of this prolonged international situation.
Behera mentioned that the Prime Minister has appealed directly to citizens to make small contributions on individual level to help the nation navigate the current economic landscape.
“Avoid high-oil menu items like puris, vadas and bondas in breakfast, reduce deep-fried food without compromising nutrition and promote use of traditional ghee, mustard oil and groundnut oil over imported palm/sunflower/soyabean oil,” the letter added.
Additionally, the letter instructed the National Service Scheme (NSS) and Youth Red Cross (YRC) to conduct awareness campaigns within local communities to reduce oil in household day-to-day cooking.
