Midday meal in Sonbhadra school: 81 Children, 1 litre Milk, 1 bucket of Water!

A primary school in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh has been reportedly accused of serving milk adulterated with water to the students under the mid-day meal scheme on Tuesday, November 27. The video of the incident has gone viral on social media.

According to the menu prescribed by Yogi Adityanath government of the state, the school children are supposed to be served with tehri (rice) and milk. The school authorities at Salai Banwa Primary School in Kota village of Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh allegedly added a bucket of water to one litre of milk, and distributed it to 81 children.

Gram Panchayat ward member Dev Patia alleged that a bucket of water was added to one litre of milk and distributed among 81 children in the primary school in Sonebhadra district's Salaibanwa area on Wednesday.

She said that as per the midday meal menu (MDM), "Tehri" (a rice dish) and milk was to be served to the children. One litre of milk was made available to the cook by the school authorities.

She said that the locals have informed her that such incidents have happened in the past too in that school.

School head Shailesh Kanaujia said: "There are 171 children enrolled in the school. Eighty-one children were present on that day. I have the responsibility to look after two schools. Milk had to be arranged for both schools and I could not monitor the quantity of milk that reached government primary school in Salaibanwa. The cook was provided the milk, which was distributed among the children and they drank it."

Reacting on the incident, Asst Basic Shiksha Adhikari said, "I am investigating the matter, Action will be taken against the culprits."

“I am being told milk was unavailable, so they were directed by the authority to mix water in it, in a balanced quantity. I'm also being told that teachers had gone to get more milk but meanwhile pictures were clicked & distributed .”

Block Education Officer Mukesh Rai said that he received information from locals that water was added to the milk and served to the children. He said a probe had been ordered into the incident and strict action will be taken so that such instances are never repeated in future.

Senior Congress leader, Ajay Rai, said: "Even children are not getting a midday meal properly. The government has failed even in providing a proper meal for the children. This is an irony that diluted milk was served to the children in a government school".

According to reports, there are 171 students enrolled in this primary school and on November 27, 81 of them were present.

In August, a government school in Mirzapur was found to be serving flat bread with salt to school children as part of the midday meal. As a video of this got viral, a few education officials were transferred while the journalist who had broken the news was sent to jail.

With IANS inputs