BALASORE: Reflecting the lax attitude of the authorities concerned, rations meant for the children under the mid-day meal scheme are rotting on the Kailash Chandra High School at Nilagiri. Nearly 27 quintals of rice and 1.5 quintal of dal besides other items like salt, turmeric, spices and mustard oil stocked on the school premises for seven months instead of being served to the students have perished. The cost of the food items has been estimated to be around `1 lakh. The 292 students of the school, which has five classes from Class-VI, complained that the school authorities instead of serving them food under MDM let the items to decompose. The school headmaster, however, blamed the local self-help group (SHG) which had shouldered the responsibility. Headmaster Baman Charan Mohanty said Oupada BDO had awarded the work to Bijay Laxmi SHG last year. As per norms the food items were stocked on the school premises and was supposed to be cooked and served by the SHG members. “But no SHG member turned up at the school to cook even as the food items continued to be supplied every month, he said.” Letters written to the BDO, tehsildar, sub-collector, president and secretary of the SHG, cluster resource centre coordinator and block resource centre coordinator, failed to elicit any response,” he informed.The block officials continued to send the school’s quota even after the headmaster wrote requesting not to supply food items further, said a school source.Meanwhile, the SHG president, Saraswati Nanda, said though we had received letter for the management of MDM in the school, the responsibility was not fully handed over to us.“We will deposit the security money and manage the MDM of the school very soon,” she said.BDO Srikant Tarai said “Action will be taken against the erring officials after a proper inquiry,” he added.
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