The Indian Express         27.11.2013

Mid-day meal tragedy: BMC sends notice to school

The BMC Tuesday issued a showcause notice to Anjuman Noorul Islam
School at Sakinaka in Andheri (East) for not following the mid-day meal
scheme’s guidelines. As many as 493 children were taken ill Monday after
they consumed cupcakes provided by the school as mid-day meal.

BMC’s education department also initiated an inquiry against its
supervisor who sanctioned bills of cooked food for the school. The
department would probe if the supervisor knowingly sanctioned bills for
cooked food, whereas the school only provided a banana, chivda,
bun-maska or cupcake as mid-day meal.

The BMC’s education committee comprising corporators has demanded
that the civic body’s education department file an FIR against the
school management and the supervisor who was supposed to monitor the
implementation of the mid-day meal scheme, for negligence and putting to
risk the health of hundreds of children. “It is outrageous they were
serving a Rs 2 cupcake to students as mid-day meal. The headmaster must
be suspended,” said Manoj Kotak, chairman of education committee. The
state provides Rs 25-28 every day for each of the children attending
civic-run and aided schools.

In separate meetings with School Education Minister Rajendra
Darda and BMC’s education committee, BMC education officer R R Bhise
submitted a report on the incident. It indicts the school and Parivartan
Mahila Mandal, the agency that supplied the mid-day meal to the school,
for not following guidelines.

The scheme requires schools to provide cooked, nutritious,
wholesome meals like dal, khichdi, eggs etc. Food items such as chikki,
chivda, cake or other bakery items do not add to the nutritional value
and hence are not allowed.

“While the school was supposed to provide khichdi with requisite
nutritional content, Parivartan Mahila Mandal has reportedly not done
so. The agency was appointed for this school in August this year. A
different agency used to supply food to the school before that. It seems
the school never objected to these agencies that were sending such
bakery items and chivda as mid-day meal,” Bhise said.

After being slammed by the authorities, BMC officials attempted
submitting a complaint letter against the school management and the
headmaster at the Sakinaka police station. This was, however, rejected
by the police. “A clerk had come to us with a letter, which I did not
accept. We cannot file two FIRs in one case. We asked the BMC officials
to first get the irregularities on record and then come to us,” said
Prasanna More, senior inspector.

The four people arrested on Monday — agency owner Anita Thorat,
bakery owner Irshad Ansari, his son Kasim Ansari and Irfan Ali Shaikh,
who had baked the cakes — were produced in court on Tuesday and sent to
five-day police custody.