TEAM HERALD
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CANACONA: Omkar Mahila Mandal President Sneha alias Sandhya Dessai has denied any wrongdoing of her self-help group in the contamination of the mid-day meals supplied to the Shri Mallikarjun Vidyalaya.
“We had also supplied meals cooked in one and the same utensil to other schools at Patnem, Palolem, Galgibaga, Nagarcem, etc. In fact, the meals to Shri Mallikarjun Vidyalaya and the primary schools at Patnem, Palolem and Nagarcem and high school at Galgibaga were from one and the same container,” said Dessai.
“If the meals were contaminated at our kitchen, then it should have affected the other students from other schools as well,” said Dessai, who is former Canacona Congress Mahila Block President.
“I have not sub-let the supplier contract and the members handle all the cooking in a normal environment kitchen,” defended Dessai.
Incidentally, Omkar Mahila Mandal also supplies mid-day meals to various schools in Poinguinim and Loliem.
Meanwhile, the Food & Drugs Administration (FDA) has seized the remaining mid-day meals supplied to Shri Mallikarjun Vidyalaya for tests.
Incidentally, Canacona Mamlatdar Ravishekar Nippanikar was at the school when a parent pointed the presence of a cooked coconut rhinoceros beetle (Ghurkuto) in the container of ‘bhaji’.
Nippanikar sealed the bhaji container and took the remaining mid-day meals in his possession. FDA inspectors later took the mid-day meals in their custody.
The FDA team led by Shivdas Naik also visited the kitchen of the self-help group at Kindlem and collected the remaining food items, besides inspecting the premises in the presence of DySP Mahesh Gaonkar and Canacona PI Harischandra Madkaikar.
