Geetanjali Gayatri
Tribune News ServiceChandigarh, November 24
Taking a serious note of the lapse in serving food unfit for consumption to children of a government school in Kaithal, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr H.S. Malik, today marked an inquiry into the matter, according to sources.
The entire stock of worm-infested porridge granules and wheat as well as fungus-affected soyabean nuggets, of the September consignment of mid-day meals, was withdrawn from the two primary schools in Deora and Keorak.
During a random check of government primary schools in Kaithal and Kurukshetra, The Tribune had found that children were being served worm-infested and fungus-affected food under mid-day meal scheme of the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
The newspaper had highlighted that while children in the schools in Kaithal were being served food unfit for consumption, food stocks in schools of Kurukshetra had exhausted a fortnight back and children were going without food in these schools.
The District Primary Education Officer, Mr Ram Gopal Verma, collected foodgrain samples from seven schools in Kaithal yesterday. When contacted, he said that the two schools in Keorak and Deora had received a fresh consignment of foodgrains and the stock unfit for consumption had been withdrawn from the schools as had been done in other schools of the district some time back.
The Director, Primary Education, Ms Satwanti Ahlawat, said that she had forwarded a recommendation that porridge granules should be bought at the local level by the school authorities.
“Porridge becomes stale very quickly and there have been regular complaints on this front. To counter this, we have suggested that the schools should buy porridge granules from the local market on a weekly basis. These are teething troubles since the scheme is relatively new for our schools. We will overcome these with time,” she said.
Ms Ahlawat said that her department had also approached the authorities concerned for delivering foodgrains to schools of Kurukshetra where children were going without food for the last fortnight. “We are trying to ensure continuation in the delivery process of foodstocks in a way that these reach the schools before the last month’s stocks are exhausted,” she added.
Interestingly, the authorities of various agencies involved in the exercise of buying, supplying and running the SSA and mid-day meal scheme squarely blamed the teachers of the school for serving unfit food.
“When the teachers can check food items in their homes, why can’t they do so in the schools? They should be responsible enough to promptly inform the Deputy Commissioner of District Education Officers if they have any problem with the stocks received in their schools and it will be taken care of. They can’t be let off the hook since they are thinking, mature adults,” an officer said.
