Bench issues notice to Centre and 12 States
The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre
and 12 States seeking their response on steps taken to ensure
cleanliness in the midday meal scheme and to prevent incidents like the
one that occurred last month in a government primary school in a Bihar
village, where 23 children died after eating contaminated food.
The
States to which a Bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice
Ranjana Desai issued notice, returnable in four weeks, on petitions
filed by Antarashtriya Manav Adhikaar Nigraani and Sanjeeb Panigrahi,
are Bihar, Odihsa, West Bengal, Assam, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and
Jharkhand.
The petitioners said “there have been a
number of deaths and incidents of vomiting by children in different
parts of the country, mostly in Bihar, Odisha, Haryana, West Bengal,
after eating unhygienic mid-day meal.”
In over 12
lakh government-run and aided schools across the country, children
received free, cooked lunch every day but “they are constantly exposed
to the risk of food poisoning and related health hazards due to a lack
of mid-day meal infrastructure and proper monitoring of the scheme,” the
petitioners said.
When children fell sick, “there is
a backlash against the whole programme from parents and teachers.”
There was also a failure to meet standards in terms of calorific value
of meals, quality of food, and micronutrients. It was noticed that
inspection of food grains was not being undertaken.
The
petitioners sought a direction to the respondents and authorities to
enforce procedures in the interest of hygiene and safety of children,
and to initiate criminal proceedings against the persons responsible for
death of children caused by contaminated or poisonous meal.
Incidents of vomiting and death mostly in Bihar, Odisha, Haryana and West Bengal
Lack of infrastructure and monitoring plagues scheme
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