MUMBAI, Oct. 9 -- The Maharashtra government has constituted a nine-member committee to review the functioning of centralised kitchens supplying meals to tribal students in government-run ashram schools, following protests over the quality and timely delivery of food. The move comes amid mounting complaints about tribal residential and ashram schools pertaining to inadequate infrastructure, poor academic performance, lack of basic amenities, student safety concerns and the quality of food served to students. It is also the fifth major decision taken by the tribal development department in a little over a month following protests by tribal students in Pune, Nashik and Mumbai. Since August 14, tribal students have staged a series of protests across the state. They held two indefinite hunger strikes during this period, with the latest agitation taking the form of a long march from Nashik to Mumbai. One group of students was forcibly stopped by the police at Navi Mumbai while the others who had reached the city were detained and transported back by the police. According to a government resolution issued by the tribal development department on Wednesday, the nine-member committee will examine several aspects of the centralised kitchen system, including the quality and hygiene of food, transportation arrangements and, crucially, the time taken to deliver meals to students. "The panel will conduct physical inspections of centralised kitchens as well as government ashram schools. It will meet kitchen operators, school management committees and student representatives to understand the problems on the ground before submitting its findings," the GR states. The committee will be headed by Gopichand Kadam, additional commissioner, Thane. Its members include Dinkar Pawara, additional commissioner of Nashik; Pradip More, undersecretary; Santosh Thube, joint commissioner; Ganesh Idivarte, project officer; Ujwal Pahurkar, United Nations Development Programme state coordinator; a representative of Stree Shakti and a UNICEF nutrition expert. Chandrakant Pawar, project officer, Nandurbar, has been appointed member secretary....