The Bihar Mid-day meal tragedy has sent the official machinery across Chhattisgarh scrambling to ensure no food served to the children goes without being sampled by school officials themselves besides undergoing stringent quality checks.
Suddenly, district administration officials across the State are rushing in schools to find out the quality of ingredients being utilised in the Mid-day meal kitchens besides the ‘Ready-to-Eat’ packages which are prepared by a large number of women Self-help Groups (SHGs). District collectors across the State had sent stern orders to the school authorities as well as the officials on monitoring every step of the meal preparation and how they are being served to the children.
In Raipur, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of District Panchayat Dhananjay Devangan in a meeting of the Block level officers and also attended by Additional District Magistrate Sanjay Agarwal directed utmost care in the implementation of the Mid-day meal scheme while directing that the inspections be carried out on a war footing. He told officials to ensure that at no circumstances bad quality ingredients be used in meal preparation and carry out mandatory inspection of the Mid-day meal at the Sankul level.
In places where there are no SHGs, the Village Panchayats and School Monitoring Committees be made responsible for monitoring the Mid-day meal preparation, Devangan said. He also directed that every school would need to display the day’s menu and every official would have to compulsorily inspect the Mid-day meal during their visit to rural areas.