Four people and an NGO have been booked for negligence after a dead rat was found in the mid-day meal served in a school in Muzaffarnagar, police said on Wednesday, 4 December.
Principal Vinod Kumar, teachers Sanjive Kumar, Munnu Persad and Babita, and supplier of the midday meal, NGO Janklyan Samiti of Hapur, were booked after eight students and a teacher of Janata Inter-College in Mustafabad Panchenda village were taken ill and sent to hospital after the rat was found in one of the plates a day before.
An inquiry was ordered by Additional District Magistrate Amit Kumar Singh after the incident came to light.
According to Singh, the police registered a case against the five under sections 269 and 273 of the IPC in this connection.
The meal, meant for students between Class 6 and 8, had been prepared by an NGO named Jan Kalyan Sanstha Committee, which is based in Hapur.
Singh added that the NGO, which has been supplying mid-day meals in 30 schools in the district, has been blacklisted and food samples have been sent to a laboratory for testing.
Divisional Commissioner of Saharanpur division, Sanjay Kumar, has directed all district magistrates and officers of the Education Department of Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur and Shamli to keep a watch on the midday meals served at schools in their areas and ordered for strict action those found guilty.
‘An Act of Carelessness’
According to reports, the dead rat was found at the bottom of the vessel in which the ‘urad dal’ had been cooked.
Talking to reporters after the incident Ram Sagar Tripathi, a local education official, called the shocking incident an example of “carelessness.”
Mid-Day Meal Scam: Regular Affair for UP Govt
In recent weeks, the UP government has made headlines for all the wrong reasons with its mid-day meal scheme.
Last week, a video from Sonebhadra district showed a cook at a mid-day meal kitchen mixing one litre of milk with a bucket of water for 81 children in the school.
In September, students of a government school in Mirzapur district were seen in a video being served roti with salt during the midday meal.
The website of the Uttar Pradesh Mid-Day Meal Authority, the overseeing body for these meals in the state, describes an elaborate menu that is supposed to be served to the children at the state-run primary schools.
It includes pulses, rice, rotis and vegetables. Fruits and milk are included on certain days, according to the meal chart.
These meals are supposed to provide a minimum of 450 calories to each child every day and must include at least 12 grams of protein and should be served to every child at least 200 days a year.
According to the state government, it has provided mid-day meals in more than 1.5 lakh primary and middle schools across the state and more than one crore children are supposed to benefit from the scheme.
(With inputs from PTI, ANI)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)