Is Telangana’s food festival a PR stunt to distract from food poisoning scandals?

All government schools have been instructed to send invitations to parents ahead of time, giving them sufficient opportunity to prepare traditional Telangana dishes such as 'Sarvapindi', 'Sakinalu', 'Nuvvulu', and 'Ragi' laddu, among others, and bring them to the Parent-Teacher Meeting (PTM) scheduled for December 21.

Hyderabad: After a rash of food poisoning incidents that drew widespread criticism, the Congress government now appears to have come up with a distraction, perhaps even as a way to overcompensate for the negativity, by announcing Telangana food Festival in schools.

All Government schools have been directed to send an invitation to parents about the food festival well in advance so that they get ample time to prepare Telangana food varieties like ‘Sarvapindi’, ‘Sakinalu’, ‘Nuvvulu’/’Ragi’ laddu among others and present bring them at parent-teachers meeting (PTM) planned on December 21.

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Apart from bringing the food to the PTM, the parents have to share information related to ingredients used, preparation method, nutrition and health benefits of the food.

To this effect, the School Education department has directed all 1,752 government and 24,335 local body schools in Telangana State to organize the food festival with the theme Nutrition on December 21 and even has circulated a poster related to it.

The move comes in wake of recent food poisoning incidents in which 383, including 55 government and local body schools, 168 KGBV students were hospitalized. In fact, Zilla Parishad High School Maganoor in Narayanpet district saw three food poisoning incidents in a span of 10 days last month and nearly 30 students fell ill on a single day after having the mid-day meal in school.

The schools have been asked to ensure 100 percent participation of parents as their role is crucial for the academic growth of their children. The HMs have also been asked to record the total number of parents who participated in the PTM and upload meeting minutes, along with pictures on the ‘Telangana School Education’ application.

The district educational officers were instructed to issue necessary instructions to the MEOs and HMs for smooth conduct of PTM in all government and local body schools in the State. All monitoring officials at mandal, district and State level under the department were directed to attend the PTMs without fail, ensuring effective conduct of the meeting.