BHOPAL: A video showing girl students washing steel plates after having Mid Day Meal (MDM) in drain water outside the school has yet again exposed the state of MDM at government schools in Madhya Pradesh.
The video pertains to a government school in Makroniya area of Sagar district, where girl students are seen washing the steel plates in the water emanating from an open drain outside the school. This is a violation of MDM norms under which the self-help group tasked with rendering MDM to school students is entrusted with the task for washing the utensils.
Shockingly, the same plates which are being washed by the girl students in drain water outside the school are used to serve MDM the next day at the school.
Taking notice of the video, a probe was ordered after which action has been initiated against the cook of the SHG, who failed to perform the duty of cleaning the plates also after the MDM.
Also, explanation has been sought from the concerned school’s headmaster in the matter, the Sagar District Project Coordinator (Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan) HP Kurmi said on Wednesday.
Importantly, this video comes just a few days after a food department team’s surprise inspection at a government primary school in Khandwa district had revealed suspected use of animal fat in preparing MDM for over 100 students of a primary school and a middle school.
The food department had also raided the house of Shanno, the head of the self-help group (SHG) tasked with preparing the MDM for the students of the two schools and seized a steel box containing animal fat from the kitchen where Shanno herself was cooking food for the students.
The raid had also revealed that instead of cooking MDM at the room allocated for the purpose at the school, Shanno was cooking the MDM at her house, which was violative of norms.
Acting in the matter, the Khandwa district panchayat CEO Roshan Singh had removed Shanno’s SHG from the task of preparing MDM for the twin schools.
The samples have been sent to the food department lab in Bhopal for testing and if anomalies were revealed by the lab tests then action will be taken under provisions of the Food Safety Act in the matter.