MARGAO: The Goa State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (GSPCR) has served notice to Directorate of Education (DoE), after taking suo moto cognisance of the media report on presence of worms in mid-day meals served the children at schools across Ponda taluka.

The Commission called for an inquiry into the incident and for necessary action against those responsible as per the law. It has further called the DoE to file a status report of all monitoring mechanisms at various levels in place to prevent further such incidents.

“This is outrageous and sheer negligence. It is also shocking to note that the food was already consumed by children, despite monitoring mechanisms in place. The Midday Meal Scheme (MDM) has an elaborate monitoring mechanism at State, district as well as local level to ensure quality food is served to children,” said Peter F Borges, GSPCR Chairperson.

“In particular, the School Management Committees (SMCs) have the responsibility to monitor the regularity and wholesomeness of the mid-day meal served to children, cleanliness in cooking and serving of the meal, timeliness in procurement of good quality ingredients, fuel, etc on daily basis,” Borges added.

“This incident shows complete carelessness on the part of all those who are part of the monitoring mechanisms across all levels and demands serious action,” Borges further said.

In the notice, the GSCPCR cited that MDM guidelines provide for instructions to schools to procure Agmark quality and branded items for preparation of mid-day meals, tasting of meals by 2-3 adult SCM members including at least one teacher before serving to children and to put in place a system of testing of food samples by accredited laboratories.

“Further, the MDM Rules, 2015 provide for mandatory testing of food samples by government-recognised laboratories to ensure that the meals meet nutritional standards and quality,” Borges added.

Self-help Group that supplied meals with worms continues to supply meals

PONDA: Even after the detection of worms in the mid-day meal supplied by the Utkarsh Self Help Group (SHG) on Tuesday, no action has been initiated against it yet and continues to supply food to schools in Ponda.

“The Utkarsh SHG at Mangeshi today (Wednesday) supplied mid-day meals to around 40 schools in Savoi Verem Volvoi, Querim Schools,” ADEI, Ponda Amisha Talaulikar said.

“Today ‘idli sambar’ was supplied to students. Regarding worms found in Tuesday’s mid-day meal supplied by the SHG, we are waiting for the FDA report. The contract of the SHG is not terminated pending inquiry,” Talaulikar said.

The ADEI said the concerned SHG purchases soyabean regularly from a Belgaum-based shop, however as it was not available there. Then, the SHG purchased a few kilograms of soyabean from a local shop at Mardol, which was found to be worm infested.

“Though teachers in school tasted the food, the worms could not be noticed until the meal was cooked,” Talaulikar said.

CM initiates inquiry, says strict action will be taken

PANJIM: Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said that the government will take strict action against the SHG, which supplied mid-day meals with worms to two government primary schools at Keri and Savoi Verem in Ponda taluka,

Sawant said that presently an inquiry has been initiated into the incident and that strict action will be taken based on the inquiry report.

“Since such types of incidents are recurring, we need to ensure that quality food is supplied to the students in schools,” he said.