GUNTUR: Vigilance and Enforcement (V&E) department along with revenue and education officials conducted a surprise inspection at Sri Paturi Nagabhushanam Zilla Parishad High School at Pedavadlapudi in Mangalagiri mandal of Guntur district on Saturday and found that insufficient midday meals (MDM) were being served to the students.
During the inspection led by V&E regional officer T Sobhamanjari and other department officials during serving of midday meals to the students, the team found that the midday meals supplied to the school was sufficient for only 70 of the 107 students while the remaining 37 went hungry.
To this, the headmaster could not furnish the exact details of the number of students being served the midday meals every day as regular attendance was not being maintained.
It also came to light that midday meals agency Akshya Patra followed a practice of collecting the details of the students seeking midday meals the previous evening and supplying food the next day at around 9 am, much before the food being served, leading to it getting cold.
Further, the officials found that proper hygiene was not being maintained at the toilets meant for boys and girls and there was no drinking water supply in the school, forcing the staffers to pay `5 for each can of water.
Further, it came to light that no higher official inspected the school and no parents-teacher meeting was held for the last one year. Circle Inspector S Anthony Raj and head constables J Nageswara Rao and K Siva Krishna also participated in the inspection.