Mid-day meals, infested with worms, served to students at Kondapur govt school

Parents question the school management about the worms in the undercooked meals, and raise concerns over frequent illnesses among children

Hyderabad: The mid-day meal served to children at the Government School Kothaguda in Kondapur on Saturday was found to include undercooked rice and worms.

Angered over this, parents, along with wards, staged a protest in front of the school and questioned the school management about the worms in the undercooked meals. They raised concerns over children falling ill frequently.

Despite repeated complaints from parents earlier highlighting the plight of their children in the schools, there has been no change in the meals served, they said.

Recalling that the mid-day meals were once nutritious and well prepared, parents expressed their ire over the deteriorating quality of the meals due to lack of supervision on meal preparation that was being done with cheap quality ingredients.

Parents wanted the school management to immediately terminate the services of the mid-day meal contractor. They warned of protests at the MEO office if the necessary and immediate interventions were not taken to improve the mid-day meal quality.

In the last one year, a large number of food poisoning cases and the issue of sub-standard food being served to students have come into the limelight.

A few students of Tribal Welfare School, Kesamudram in Mahabubabad, fell ill after they were served with worm-infested food on January 28. Two days later, nearly 50 students from different government-run schools in Kamareddy, Narayanpet and Suryapet districts, fell ill due to food poisoning.