Watch: Rat takes a swim in chutney at Telangana’s Sulthanpur JNTU hostel canteen

Students, who noticed the live rat moving around in the chutney, shot videos and posted on social media; stage protests

Sangareddy: In a shocking incident, a live rat was found swimming in a vessel of chutney prepared to serve students of the JNTU-Sultanpur on Monday evening.

With students shooting a video of the incident and sharing it on social media, the incident snowballed into a major controversy on Tuesday, prompting the State government to order a probe, even as the college principal tried to accuse the students saying that they had intentionally dropped the rat in the chutney. Top officials including the JNTU-Hyderabad Registrar, Additional Collector and food safety officials rushed to the college as the nauseous video of the rat struggling about in the watery chutney went viral on social media and television news channels.

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Health Minister Damodara Raja Narasimha, responding to the incident, ordered officials to submit a detailed report, following which Collector Valluru Kranthi asked Additional Collector RD Madhuri, Food Inspector Dharmendar and other officials to inspect the JNTU-Sultanpur college hostels on Tuesday.

The Minister also directed the officials across the State to carry out inspections in all school, college and university-level hostels to check whether students were being served food as per norms. He also asked officials to suspend licenses of contract agencies if they failed to follow food safety norms. All agencies must follow Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) norms, he said, also directing the Food Safety Department to keep a regular watch on hotels, restaurants, bakeries and other eateries across the State to ensure they served safe food.

When the Additional Collector inspected the hostel, she found the kitchen unhygienic with several utensils remaining uncleaned for days. Madhuri said the hostel management had employed untrained staff who were seen working without gloves and caps. The Additional Collector interacted with students as well.

She later directed the college management to cancel the contract of the cooking agency and employ a new agency that would supply better food to students. The students requested the Additional Collector to ensure a change in the quality of food being served to them.

Madhuri also served memos to the hostel warden and other staff holding them responsible for the incident. She asked the principal to focus on sanitation in the college besides employing trained staff for kitchen management.

Shockingly, even as the incident stoked a controversy, JNTU-Sultanpur College principal G Narasimha alleged that the hostel students had deliberately dropped the rat in the chutney to make an issue out of nothing. He drew flak for his statement before the Additional Collector, who reprimanded him for making such false accusations against the students.

“Students need quality food, nothing more than that. How could they catch a live rat?” the official asked the principal, even as students protested against his allegations.

Meanwhile, JNTU-Hyderabad Registrar Prof K Venkateshwar Rao, who also visited the college after the incident came to light, claimed that the students were being served quality food. Prof Rao said students of the boys’ hostel were being served breakfast, lunch and dinner for just Rs.77 per day. Stating that he had tasted the food on Tuesday, the Registrar said only a few students were complaining, while the rest had no complaints. The term of the current agency was over in March 2024, but they could not get a new agency because the election code was in vogue. A new agency would be contracted soon by issuing online tenders, he said.

Earlier, the incident saw the students launching a protest, alleging that they were being served poor quality food for the last few days. The students expressed anger against the management of the hostel and the college principal, accusing them of not responding to their pleas to improve the menu. There were six girls’ hostels and six boys’ hostels in the college. The girls’ hostel had staged a protest a few days ago accusing the hostel management of serving poor quality food and had taken the issue to the notice of the hostel warden and principal. However, nothing changed with the boys’ hostel now witnessing the rat in chutney episode.