Although carried to extreme in her first meeting with senior officers in Lucknow on Saturday, Ms. Mayawati is right in debunking eating extravaganzas by India's civil servants during and after long and short meetings. In 2006, a meeting of West Bengal's senior officers from districts with their bosses in the writers Building to discuss starvation deaths and hunger in tribal regions in the State's western districts was punctuated by a sumptuous lunch with biriyani, causing some public and media flutter. If a meeting runs to 3-4 hours, the participants should have a tea or a coffea break. If officers' meetings are held after lunch hours, there won't be any need for spending tens of thousands of rupees on sumptuous lunches or lunch packets, to the enrichment of caterers. Sometimes, an unnecessary meeting becomes an excuse for consuming sumptuous food at public expense. Such wasteful expenditures must stop. Let Lucknow make a beginning. -Bibekananda Ray camp: Singapore
