Mokokchung, March 9 (MExN): The Mokokchung Town Lanur Telongjem (MTLT) today discovered that worm infested rice was being distributed to different schools in Mokokchung Town under the Mid Day Meal (MDM) Scheme by the School Education Department.
The MTLT, in a press note, informed that this horrific discovery was made after the organisation received complaints from different quarters about the low-quality, old and worm infested rice being supplied by the SDEO Office Mokokchung.
It visited the different Government Primary and Middle Schools under Mokokchung town on March 9, in order to gather first hand information regarding the rice being distributed at the schools.
It informed that bags of rice in different government schools “were found to be uneatable: the bags of rice were found to be very old, infested with worms and simply not fit for human consumption.”
“This kind of rice cannot be eaten even by pigs, was the common comment expressed by different teachers at the different schools. The students had to skip their midday meal since the school authorities could not take the risk of feeding such spoiled rice to their children,” the MTLT said.
It however appreciated the fact that the different schools had abstained from preparing the rice since it would cause severe health problems to the students. “It must be pointed out here that there have been cases of food poisoning in some Indian states where children were taken ill after taking mid-day meals,” the MTLT noted.
The MTLT said that “if such rice, as those worm infested rice, is also fed to our children, then surely there would be health issue among the students.”
Therefore, it urged the concerned department to immediately replace the rice and redistribute good quality rice to the different schools. Noting that the MDM scheme is a centrally sponsored scheme, it postulated that “surely the central government would not distribute such low quality and unhealthy rice to be fed to the innocent students.”
It questioned as to how the Directorate of School Education, Kohima (DOSE) could distribute such worm infested rice without checking its quality.
The MTLT further appealed the different schools not to feed such consignments of rice to the students but make every effort to replace the rice with better quality ones. “If there is any reported case of food-poisoning in any of the schools in Mokokchung town after feeding the unhealthy rice, then the concerned authority would be held responsible,” it questioned. 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.”
The MTLT acknowledged the concerned citizens for bringing this issue to light, while asserting that the organisation takes this issue seriously because the health and education of the young students are at stake.
It expressed hope that the concerned authority would immediately take necessary action and replace such consignments of rice with good quality ones, so that the students are not deprived of their rights.
The MTLT also wrote to the Mokokchung DC apprising him of the issue. In the letter, the MTLT said that “with the active cooperation of the school authorities, it got first-hand information from the teachers and even saw the MDM rice being distributed by the SDEO Office, Mokokchung.”
The MTLT, while stating that the MDM scheme should be implemented fully since it is a centrally sponsored scheme, however asserted that it should be done without compromising the quality of food provided under the scheme.
It further informed that rice “is being supplied from the ‘MDM store in Dimapur. It is also learnt that all the rice distributed from the SDEO office under the MDM scheme was of the same low quality.”
It urged the Mokokchung DC to impress upon the concerned department to replace the low-quality, uneatable and degraded rice at the earliest since the health of thousands of school students are at stake if they consume such food.
