Director of mid-day meal programme in Bihar, R lakshamanan apprehended that the massive tragedy at Dharmsati Gandaman Primary School claiming lives of 23 children in Saran district of the State was caused due to the multiple violations in maintaining hygiene and quality of the food served to students.
lakshamanan told newspersons in Patna on Thursday that teachers and cooks did not perform quality check and ensured its proper maintenance, resulting in the loss of innocent lives. He said that the State Government will issue comprehensive directives for strict quality check of food, served under midday meal scheme in schools across the state soon. The midday meal scheme has been in the spotlight in the State for several wrong reasons particularly presence of dead lizards in meals and also rotten rice served to children under the scheme.
lakshamanan who along with Additional Secretary in the Union Human Resources Development Ministry, Amarjeet Singh had visited the Gandaman primary school said that the Head Mistress of the school has been found guilty of gross negligence and the Government has ordered for her suspension. He said that departmental action was taken against 2326 guilty Government personnel after inspection was done at 123504 schools during 2012-13.
He said that 1.64 lakh cooks have also been trained for improving hygiene standards where the food is prepared, adding that nearly Rs 1800 crore would be spent for implementation of the midday meal scheme in the State during 2013-13. The Director said that the sanction was made for the Dandaman School in 2010 and in all 79 children are enrolled in it. In all 55 children were present in the school on the day when the “poisonous’ food was served to them. In all 46 children had fallen sick after consuming food. The mid day meal scheme at the school is coordinated by School Education Committee, specially constituted for the purpose. The school has two teachers, Meena Kumar (Head Mistress) and Kalpana Kumari. Amazingly, Kalpana Kumari was not in the school when the midday meal tragedy happened.