Close on the heels of shocking reports of scorpion and earthworm found in mid day meals (MDM), the School and Mass Education Department on Tuesday started a two-day training session of the officials involved in the welfare scheme for ensuring quality food to the school kids.
“No laxity in the preparation and servicing of quality foods to school kids would be tolerated,” warned School and Mass Education Minister Rabi Narayan Nanda after addressing the officials of his department at the sensitisation programme in the State Secretariat.
The two-day sensitization progamme is being attended by the District Education Officers (DEOs), Block Education Officers (BEOs) and Block Resource Persons (BRPs). The programme was being attended by School and Mass Education Secretary Usha Padhi, Director and senior officials of the department.
Concerned over the preparation of MDMs in unhygienic atmosphere, Nanda asked the DEOs and BEOs to move out regularly to monitor the quality of foods served to the students. He said that the State Government would provide revised detailed instructions relating to maintenance of quality and safety of food served under the MDM scheme. Any violation in the instruction and failure on the part of the monitoring staff would be dealt with sternly, he said.
In order to avoid any possible Bihar like tragedy, he said for maintaining high standards of hygiene, it was decided to construct safe kitchen shed in all the schools for preparation and serving of MDM along with utensils. During the sensitisation programme, the officials requested the Minister to ensure first aid protocol in the schools.
The Minster Nanda also visited some of the schools in the capital city to have an on-the-spot study of the situation under which the MDM is being prepared and served. He expressed his dissatisfaction over some shortcomings in preparation and serving of foods to the students in some schools and told the authorities to ensure food quality and safety norms.