UP Govt School Students Allegedly Served Rice And Salt As Mid-Day Meals, Enquiry Initiated After Video Goes Viral

Mid-day meal schemes at government schools were an initiative that was launched to improve students' attendance in schools, reduce the number of dropouts and have a beneficial impact on children's nutrition.

Under the scheme, the Central Government supplies the required food grains free of cost. With such a scheme in place, many parents were motivated to send their children to schools so that their nutritional needs were met appropriately.

However, many schools continue to report their flawed structure of mid-day meals, with people taking advantage of the free supplies that come along. In a similar case, a video is currently going viral for having exposed a government school in Ayodhya for serving students just rice and salt.

A Contradicting Menu

The two-minute video that exposed the government school was shot by a student's parent. It shows the primary school students being seated on the floor and served rice and salt as their mid-day meal.

Narrating the situation, the parent said that the teachers and the village head refuses to take responsibility of the students. The parent can be seen asking, "Who will want to send their children to such a school?" and asks Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to watch the video and take necessary action.

The video then shows a wall painted with the list of food items that would be available in the Mid Day Meal, including milk, rotis, dal, vegetables, and rice. Questioning where the menu reads "rice-salt" as a meal, the person takes the video back to the students eating the nutrition-deficient food.

A video of children at a primary school in UP's Ayodhya being served boiled rice and salt as mid day meal has surfaced. pic.twitter.com/5wVaE9XWKC

— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) September 28, 2022

Action Taken After The Video Went Viral

After the video had gone viral, District Magistrate Nitish Kumar issued an order to have the principal of the school suspended with immediate action.

He further elaborated that he had ordered the schools to serve the food as per the scheme menu, and no laxity would be tolerated regarding the same. However, he also added that the suspension was based on apparent evidence presented by the video, and a detailed inquiry will soon follow.

As per a report by NDTV, a similar incident occurred in Uttar Pradesh in the year 2019. In that case, a regional journalist who had reported about school children being served roti and salt at the school was charged on the grounds of alleged conspiracy against the government.

Also Read: Uttar Pradesh: Govt School Principal Booked For Siphoning Over Rs 11 Crore From Mid-Day Meal Scheme