Bhubaneswar: With schools across Odisha set to reopen on June 18 after the summer vacation, the state government has directed all the District Education Officers (DEO) to ensure that mid-day meals (MDM) are served to all the students from the very first day.
Official sources said the School and Mass Education Department has in a letter directed all the schools to serve MDM to every child (6 to 14 years) attending school from Class 1 to 8th from June 18.
Stating that MDM is the right of every child, it said no child shall be deprived of his/her right because of unpreparedness on the part of the school management authorities/central kitchen agencies. Therefore, all sorts of preparedness and precautions are to be taken beforehand to serve MDM from the first day of reopening of schools, the letter said.
The authorities were also asked to take adequate precautions to check the edibility of the available ingredients before handing over the same to cook-cum helpers as the unutilized MDM rice, oil, condiments, dal, soya chunk and other materials would have been infected, damaged or become inedible during the vacation.
The school authorities should strictly carry out the message of the Edibility Test in every school avoid any mishap or food poisoning.
While the cooking place should be clean, the safety protocol with regards to CCH, drinking water and MDM ingredients should be strictly followed, the letter added.
