As a wake-up call following the Bihar school mid-day meal (MDM) tragedy that took 23 children’s lives, the Odisha Government on Saturday decided to monitor the quality of food being served to the children in schools and anganwadis by special squads. About 60 students had fallen ill in Baleswar and Dhenkanal after taking poisonous meals at their schools recently.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who reviewed the implementation of MDM programme in the schools at the State Secretariat, directed the school & mass education authorities to formulate a special monitoring mechanism committee to find out the loopholes and shortcomings as far as the food quality is concerned as well as the way food is being stored, cooked and served to avoid any possible mishap.
It was decided that the special squad would be constituted both in district and block level and would remain under the direct control of the school & mass education department, said Minister Rabi Narayan Nanda after the meeting.
He said the Chief Minister had asked to see that the quality of the food should be tested by the cook, the assistant cook and a member of the school management committee (SMC) before it is served to the students. The headmaster of the school would also test the food to certify its quality.
“The mandatory protocol should be ensured in all schools where MDM is being served,” the Chief Minister said. Besides, the seven- point existing parameters to ensure the regularity of serving of food with maintaining quality ,the Chief Minister also asked the authorities to monitor the MDM activities through a third party, who would visit at least 300 schools in a district in every month and assess the functioning of the MDM programme.
Besides, expressing concern over the fact that there has been no kitchen shed in more than 27,500 schools, the Chief Minister asked the School and Mass Education Minister to ensure construction of kitchen shed in all the left out schools without any further delay.
The MDM programme has been implemented in around 63,531 schools of which 36,000 schools have kitchen sheds.
The Chief Minister also told categorically that the mandatory protocol would be implemented for the MDM programme being implemented both in the schools and anganwadis. A detailed quality parameter would be enforced to see that qualitative food is served, he said.
As many as 49 lakh children are beneficiary in the MDM programme in the anganwadis.
The meeting was attended by, among others, Minister Nanda, Chief Secretary JK Mohapatra, Development Commissioner I Srinivas, School and Mass Education Secretary Usha Padhi and Women and Child Development Secretary Arati Ahuja.