Mess Committees involving hostel students confined to papers

Despite promises of quality meals and student-involved mess committees, food-related illnesses continue in Telangana’s government residential schools. Recent incidents in Nalgonda and Vikarabad highlight poor enforcement, prompting criticism from parents and student unions over the government’s inaction.

HYDERABAD: Despite the rise in incidents of students getting admitted to hospitals after consuming poor-quality food, the Congress government’s negligence towards ensuring quality meals in government-run residential schools continues.

On Monday, nearly 35 students of the Tribal Welfare School at Mudigonda in Nalgonda fell sick after having snacks and dinner on Sunday. Among these 22 students were immediately rushed to a local hospital for treatment, and doctors said their condition was stable.

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Similarly, students of KGBV at Marpelly at Vikarabad staged a protest at the school gate over poor quality food being served to them. The students also charged that rice infested with worms was being served to them.

This is even after Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy launched a uniform diet menu in December last and directed officials to form Mess Committees comprising students.

Apart, the Chief Minister had assured that he would visit residential schools regularly, inspect the food quality, and interact with students. Assuring stringent punishment to anyone found irresponsible, he had also instructed District Collectors, SPs, Ministers, and MLAs to regularly visit the schools and have lunch with the students.

During the launch of the programme, a few Ministers and MLAs ate food along with students, and so did a few officials. However, since then, save for Collectors and senior officials, not many MLAs or Ministers are visiting the schools and checking the food quality.

In addition to these directions, the State government had also decided to constitute task forces and institution-level food safety committees. Even after six months, there is no clarity over constituting the mess committees involving students and adherence to other directions issued by the Chief Minister.

Questioning the government’s negligence, parents and student unions have been demanding action against people responsible for serving poor-quality food in schools.

Had the government monitored diet regularly and implemented the rules strictly, incidents of students falling sick would not have occurred frequently in the State, SFI State Secretary Nagaraju said.

There was a delay in clearing the mess charges in many schools, and accordingly, wardens were forced to use substandard ingredients for preparing the meals, he added.