Gunupur: An upper primary school at Marathiguda village of this block in Rayagada district was again in the news Wednesday for a wrong reason.
Students and guardians were up in arms after worms were found in the rice plates of some school kids.
According to reports, mid-day meals were served to students Wednesday during lunch hour. However, some students found dead worms in their plates and informed their parents about it.
When contacted over the issue, block education officer Jeevan Kishore Baruwa said measures would be taken to prevent such situation in future.
The school has hogged the limelight in recent months for a variety of reasons including surplus teaching staff, studying of students near anthills and unsafe classrooms.
The administration had launched a probe that revealed that nearly 100 students don’t come to the school regularly but mid-day meals are prepared for them. This indicated wrongdoings by the school authorities.
Though names of 40 students were struck off from the attendance register and a probe ordered in the matter, no one was held accountable over the issue.
Similarly, villagers of Marathiguda seized two packets of rice October 25 last year when they were being taken out from the school. Locals took up the matter with the sub-collector but no action was taken, it was learnt.
Though worms in MDM had been detected in the past also, the administration didn’t take it seriously that led to recurrence of the incident, alleged locals seeking stringent action by the education department in the matter.
PNN
