Now, before serving midday meals to the children, the headmaster of the school and the cook will taste the food. Collector R Sangeeta has issued important guidelines in this regard to all the schools.
According to official sources, the State Government had issued important guidelines to give special attention for safe maintenance of food material, menu and quality of food being given to the school children under the midday meal scheme. Besides, strict instruction has also been issued not to keep any other non-edible and poisonous material like kerosene, soda, insecticides, rat poison etc in the room or store room where the food material for preparation of midday meal is stored at any cost. It was also instructed to keep the store room clean where the food materials are kept.
The groups which run the midday meal scheme were also asked to use good quality grains, edible oil and spices. Clear instructions have also been issued to keep samples of grains, edible oil, spices etc being used in midday meal safely at least for one month. To maintain the quality of midday meal instruction has been issued to maintain regular cleaning of the kitchen room or kitchen shed, so that the place could be made safe off insects, rats and lizards. Food should be prepared by covering with lid and the prepared food materials should also be kept covered. At any cost the children should not be given cold or stale food.
Even after these precautions, if any emergency occurs, the headmaster of the school concerned should immediately inform senior officers on telephone. The collector has instructed sub divisional officer revenue, chief executive officer Janpad Panchayat, BEO and block resource coordinators for strict implementation of all these instructions.The collector asked the district education officer and all block education officers to make surprise visit of at least 10 schools every month and to keep vigil on the quality of midday meal. Besides, field staff of other departments have also been instructed to keep strict vigil on the midday meal.