Insects in mid-day meal row: villagers provide meal to students

Malkangiri: Following allegations of insect-infested rice being used for the purpose of mid day meal at a primary school in the MV-29 village of the district through an OTV news, the headmistress of the school has gone on leave. Since she has not handed over the store room keys to anyone else, villagers have joined hands to provide food to the students.

Earlier, a report on insect-infested rice and rotten vegetables being used for mid day meal scheme was exposed by OTV.

In the absence of the headmistress, another teacher of the school has been handed over the responsibility to manage the scheme.  “CRCC sir called and asked me to take care of the school for two days as Headmistress is on leave on June 29. I was just informed to take care of the children till higher authority returns,” said a teacher, Nandini Madakami.

According to sources, due to unavailability of the store room key, the school administration is failing to provide mid day meal to the children. Therefore the residents of the village have taken up the responsibility of providing food to the students.

“The Headmistress is on leave since the issue was highlighted. The school administration is not able to provide mid day meal to the students therefore recently I paid for the groceries with which food was cooked for the children in the school,” said one villager, Mania Mallik.

A team of State BJP visited the school and strongly condemned the issue.

The issue has been communicated to the District Collector, said District Education Officer (DEO).