Mokokchung Town Lanur Telongjem (MTLT) has expressed dismay at the alleged distribution of old and worm-infested rice to different schools under Mokokchung town under the mid day meal (MDM) scheme.
In a press release, public grievances cell MTLT stated that it visited different government primary and middle schools under Mokokchung town on March 9 on receiving complaints about low-quality rice being supplied by SDEO office Mokokchung.
MTLT said it was shocked to discover that bags of rice in different government schools were allegedly found to be unfit for human consumption as the rice were found to be very old, infested with worms.
According to MTLT, common response from different teachers at the different schools was that such kind of rice “cannot be eaten even by pigs.”
It stated that the students had to skip their mid-day meal since the school authorities could not take the risk of feeding such spoiled rice to children. MTLT, however, lauded the schools for abstaining from preparing the rice since it would cause severe health problems to the students.
Pointing out that there had been cases of food poisoning in some states where children were taken ill after taking mid-day meals, the MTLT said if worm-infested rice was fed to “our children” then health issue among the students would surely arise.
Therefore, the MTLT has urged the responsible department to immediately replace the rice and redistribute good quality rice to the different schools.
Maintaining that central government would not distribute such low quality and unhealthy rice to be fed to the innocent students, the MTLT questioned as to how could the directorate of school education distribute such worm-infested rice without checking its quality.
Meanwhile, the MTLT has appealed to different schools not to feed the students with unhealthy rice and make every effort to replace rice with better quality ones.
MTLT cautioned that the responsible authority would be held responsible if there was any reported case of food-poisoning in any of the schools in Mokokchung town due to unhealthy rice.
It also questioned the food safety officer (FSO), department of health & family welfare for the “apparent negligence in not inspecting the MDM rice before distribution.”
MTLT has meanwhile appreciated concerned citizens for bringing up the issue for the sake of the education and health of the young children. MTLT affirmed that it took this issue seriously because the health and education of the young students were at stake. MTLT has also written to the deputy commissioner (DC) Mokokchung on the issue seeking his immediate intervention.
MTLT urged DC to impress upon the responsible department to replace the low-quality rice at the earliest since the health of thousands of school students were at stake.