MID-DAY MEAL QUALITY Health Dept writes to DEO, DC

Jalandhar, April 18

Finally, waking up from their slumber after a number of complaints and protests regarding the bad state of mid-day meals in the city, health department teams inspected the facility where the meal is prepared.

The health authorities have written to the District Education Officer (Secondary Education) Kuldeeep Sharma as well as the Deputy Commissioner Varun Roojam regarding the bad state of the mid-day meal being prepared.

After taking food samples from the facility yesterday, health teams inspected the kitchen premises where the meals are being prepared and concluded that the state of the meal was very bad.

Ironically, while schools have been screaming foul about bad mid-day meal and the state of the establishment was also found to be bad, the health authorities “officially” continue to be in a state of denial.

Sources in the Health Department said, “We visited the facility following repeated complaints regarding bad mid-day meal, on the instructions of the Civil Surgeon. The place was not hygienic and flies hovered over the food. Although food is prepared under a shed, it is open from all the other sides and insects and flies get in. The state of the preparations was bad. The food was ill-prepared. The rotis were hard and stale and the dal and rice were also not prepared properly. We also visited a number of schools where the mid-day meal was found to be not up to the mark. We have issued a warning.”

However, Civil Surgeon Dr RL Bassan said, “Inspections were carried out and samples were taken. The samples will tell whether the food is proper. The establishment, in general, was found to be fine. The in charge of the school health programme inspected the place. She has issued a note on the issue.”

When asked why a stern warning or punitive action hadn’t been recommended, the CS said, “Let the reports come first.”

Health teams had also visited two of the schools in the Gandhi Camp area yesterday where again, the food was found to be bad.

The Tribune had highlighted the issue of sub-standard mid-day meal being served in various schools in these columns a few days ago. While the Education Department had said raids would be carried out regarding the bad state of meals, a concrete step in this direction hadn’t been taken so far.

Schools from a number of areas scattered across the district complained that they were being served stale, smelly food in their mid-day meals and a number of them had even discarded the food, dumping it outside their premises because it was inedible.

About four to five samples of food items were taken yesterday.

Confident of food quality

Veersain Upadhyay, general manager of the Jalandhar kitchen of the NGO Bagdanga Pashchimgiri Dishalakshmi, said, “The health teams have previously taken samples from our kitchen and they passed. You will see these samples will also come out good. We have been kids too. Our food is perfect. In fact, all schools are happy with it. There are just one or two which create trouble.”

He denied allegations of his kitchen being found in an unhygienic state by the health authorities yesterday.

The NGO, which is already providing food in Bathinda, Patiala and Amritsar started providing mid-day meal in the (urban schools) city on February 3. It feeds 35,000 students across 195 schools in the district. While it started with 90 schools, the rest were added on March 24 and April 1.

Fact file

The place where mid-day meal for urban schools is prepared was found in a bad state

Instructions issued to improve mid-day meal quality

No serious action taken so far