The students availing midday meal (MDM) facility from the central kitchen have expressed dissatisfaction as the lunch from the centre was arriving late.
The central kitchen after a lot of hiccups finally began in the district from October 15 for the urban area schools and food prepared in the centre at Sergarh is being supplied through centre’s vehicles.
The students’ lunch time is between 1.15 pm and 2 pm . In the 45 minutes they finish their lunch and join their classes.
The students as well as teachers of Balasore Zilla School complained that the MDM arrived late in school where as it should be delivered at least 30 minutes before the lunch time.
On Thursday while it arrived at around 1.35 pm and it was an egg day, most of the students couldn’t take food in time. Some of the students took boiled unpeeled eggs to their homes . Besides some students alleged that the food was not of quality.
While lunch arrived late it is also seen that the students were taking their meals beside drain in plates. The school has a strength of 311 students, enrolled between Classes-VI and VIII.
Headmaster of the Zilla school Prafulla Kumar Sahu also admitted that the lunch from central kitchen arrived late triggering commotion among the students.
However , he admitted that there was no dining hall for the schools and there was a proposal to construct one.
For supply of meals, the selected NGO for the district is ‘Bagdanga Paschim Gheri Vishal Laxmi’ of West Bengal.
On October 15 while the central kitchen was inaugurated by the district Collector K Sudarshan Chakraverthy, the meal will initially be supplied to 52 schools of the Baleswar town.