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Mid Day Meal in Rajouri: Rotten potatoes, rice with fungus

TAZEEM MALIK. Dated: 7/26/2013 12:11:45 AM

RAJOURI, Jul 25: Notwithstanding the government claims of regularly monitoring the implementation of Mid Day Meal schemes in the schools of state to avoid Bihar like incidents, rotten potatoes and rice with fungus are being served to students in government educational institutions in Rajouri district.
A visit to the peripheries of Rajouri district and one may encounter that many government schools in this border district are playing with the lives of hundreds of school kids by serving them with sub-standard food in the name of Mid Day Meal.
Not just the quality of food to be distributed among the children is being compromised but also many other components of the scheme are being violated.
Under this scheme, the school children were being forced to consume rotten food items. During a visit to some schools in the periphery of Rajouri, this Kashmir Times correspondent found the kitchen being run in the class rooms. In a class room, on the one side, the students were being taught while in another corner of same room, the food to be served as `Mid Day Meal’ was being prepared.
In the Government Primary School Nainsukh, the fungus-ridden edibles (rice with minor insects and rotten potatoes with fungus) were being prepared to feed the students.
In many schools, the Mid-Dal Meal was being prepared after the prescribed timing for providing meal to the students.
Headmaster of Government Primary School Nainsukh, when contacted to get his version about poor quality of edibles, said, “We are not getting the funds meant for Mid Day Meal scheme well in time and that is the reason for such problems.”
According to him, there is also lack of infrastructure for the preparation, storage of edibles, which is believed to be another cause of unhygienic meal being given to students.
The School Education Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand, when contacted, assured detailed probe in the whole matter. He also directed DDC Rajouri to visit such schools and submit the report within two days.