Mid-day meal scam: Koraput DEO directs to form probe committee after OTV report

A couple of days after OTV aired mid-day meal irregularities in various schools at Jeypore in Koraput, the District Education Officer (DEO) has directed to form a high-level committee to probe the incident.

According to sources, Rama Chandra Nahak, DEO of Koraput has directed the committee to submit a detailed report on what circumstances did the scam happened.

Moreover, the DEO has said necessary action will be taken against the contractual agencies after getting the reports from all schools.

While Sunabeda-based Om Enterprisers has got the contract in five blocks, Jeypore-based Singhal Transport has the contract of nine blocks in the district.

On the other hand, District Supplies Inspector has said the Supplies department has nothing to do in the scam as district education department monitors the operations of mid-day meal scheme.

It is worthwhile to mention here that OTV aired a detailed report on how hundreds of kilos of rice worth lakhs of rupees were found to be embezzled at various schools under Jeypore block in Koraput district on Tuesday.

OTV reporter reached several schools in Jeypore to verify the truth about the scam and found that agents appointed by Collectors delivered less quantity of rice to schools than they are supposed to. 

To make things worse, the school authorities also accepted the rice bags containing less quantity of rice, without weighing it.

Ideally, one gunny bag of rice should weigh 50kg. But, the rice bags weigh only 47-48kg by the time they reach the schools. This clearly shows that a huge quantity of rice is being bungled, with no action by the administration.

Earlier on Wednesday, Odisha Assembly witnessed noisy scenes with Opposition BJP and Congress raising the issue in the House.