Madurai, India: All is not well with food at government hostels

MADURAI: Food safety officials, who undertook an inspection at the government-run student hostels in the city on Tuesday as part of issuing licenses under the Food Safety Act, found the hostels lacking even pure drinking water facilities and the cooking materials of substandard quality.
The team of food safety officials comprising J Suguna, designated officer for Food Safety and Drug Administration and health inspectors, Saravanan, Muralidharan and Amjad inspected the hostels based on the instructions from the district administration.
When the team inspected the government student hostel campus in Chokkikulam where six hostels for school, college students are situated on Tuesday, the officials found that the drinking water quality was very poor in the premises. When the drinking water tank was opened for inspection, larval growth was found in the water and the reverse osmosis plants set up in the hostels had gone defunct long back. The students were found to be drinking the same water and the food was also cooked in that. The officials also found that worms in the rice used for cooking and the groceries were without any labels.

"During our inspection in Chokkikulam, we found that the quality of drinking water is not up to mark as RO plants were not functional," Suguna said.