A first information report was registered against the head teacher and cook of a government school in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur district after a video of students at the school being served poor-quality mid-day meal was widely shared on social media, The Indian Express reported on Thursday.

The video showed students at the school in Chhangapur village in Mahmudabad block eating an excessively watery vegetable curry and burnt rotis, with one roti falling to the floor before a child picked it up and placed it back on his plate.

A complaint filed by the block education officer accused head teacher Kalpana Verma and the cook, Aneeta, of embezzling government-supplied food items and engaging in corrupt practices, The Indian Express quoted the station house officer of Mahmudabad police station as saying.

Separately, the district administration suspended Verma and terminated Aneeta’s services.

Sitapur District Magistrate Rajaganapathy R said that the two had failed to serve food and milk in accordance with prescribed norms despite receiving government supplies on time, the newspaper reported.

The district magistrate also held the block education officer accountable for dereliction of duty, The Indian Express reported. An adverse entry was made in his service record.

The mid-day meal scheme, which is officially known as the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education, was launched in August 1995 to boost universalisation of primary education, while improving nutrition levels of children.

The scheme simultaneously lays emphasis on providing cooked meals with minimum 450 calories, between eight and twelve grams of proteins, and adequate quantities of other nutrients. The 2013 National Food Security Act made the mid-day meal up to Class 8 a legal right.

*Edited by Tanya Shrivastava. *

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