village council in the Bihar State of India has banned the supply of midday meal to the schools after 23 children died in a tragedy on Tuesday.
A decision to ban the midday meal was taken by the Rampur village council in Saran district, located close to the Dharmasati-Gandaman primary school where 23 children died after eating midday meal.
At a meeting of villagers held on Friday evening, it was also decided by the villagers to punish the schools who serve midday meals to the children. The move will come in to force from Monday.
“We will not allow the school authorities kill children by serving them contaminated food until anyone from the administration gives the guarantee that such deaths will not occur in future,” the local village head Amarendra Singh told Gulf News on Friday alleging the entire scheme had turned into a centre of large corruption.
He said instead of serving food to the schoolchildren, the government should transfer money to their account. Singh also intimated the local district authorities about the decision as taken by the village council and urged them to look into their grievances.
According to him, the children too are no longer interested in eating the free food in schools and have even began carrying lunch boxes with them. “They [schoolchildren] say we will be left killed if we eat the midday meal,” said the village head quoting the local children.
The village council order to ban midday meals applies to a total of eight schools which fall under its jurisdiction.
The government in the meanwhile has began the process to attach the property of accused school principal Meena Devi who has been held guilty by an inquiry team of officials. The accused principal against whom a murder case has already been registered by the local administration has been absconding since the tragedy took place.
“We have started the process of attaching her property as she has gone missing after the incident,” the local sub-divisional officer Manish Kumar Sharma said yesterday, adding “they are praying the court to issue attachment order”.
Alarmed at the deaths of children, the state government has appealed to the people’s representatives, villagers and school education committee to make regular inspection of schools and intimate the government if something wrong noticed.
“We appeal to all people’s representatives, villagers and other responsible citizens to make regular inspection of schools to ensure quality food,” education department’s principal secretary Amarjeet Sinha told the media adding sub-standard food should be thrown away and in no circumstances be consumed.
According to him, the midday meal is currently served in a total of 70,260 primary schools.
He said the government had also taken a policy decision not to run any schools from rented or dilapidated structures from now on and equip up new unit with full-fledged kitchens.
“On the same ground, the ill-fated Dharmasati-Gandaman primary school will be merged with the nearest middle school,” declared Sinha.
