UP mid-day meal shocker: 1 litre milk diluted in water fed to 85 schoolkids

The mid-day meal scheme was introduced by various state governments across India with a two-fold purpose: Ensure adequate nutrition to poor children while being an incentive to boost attendance and reduce drop-out rates.

But the mid-day meal scheme in Uttar Pradesh has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. In the state, under the mid-day meal scheme, students are served pulses, rice, rotis and vegetables along with fruit and milk alternatively. In August, a primary school in Mirzapur made headlines after it was found to be feeding children rotis with just salt for the mid-day meal. Two teachers were suspended for the incident.

Now, another government-run institution, the Salai Banwa Primary School in Chopan area of the predominantly tribal Sonbhadra district, is facing flak. Media reports claimed that on Wednesday, school officials ran short of milk and mixed one litre of milk to a bucket full of water for 85 kids. Images of the incident have gone viral on social media.

News agency ANI quoted a school employee as saying, "There were almost 85 children and there was only one packet of milk.” She added she was instructed to mix the milk to water. The milk was served hot after boiling.

The incident came to the notice of district officials who were inspecting the implementation of the mid-day meal scheme. Gorakhnath Patel, assistant basic shiksha adhikari for Sonbhadra, told ANI that he was told "milk was unavailable, so they were directed by the authority to mix water in it, in a balanced quantity". Patel added that the photographs of the incident were clicked when the teachers had gone to buy more milk. Patel warned action would be taken against those responsible.

A gram panchayat member, Dev Patia, told mediapersons that local residents had complained to her that such incidents had happened previously at the school.

Congress leader Ajay Rai took aim at the Yogi Adityanath government, claiming that it had "failed even in providing a proper meal for children".

Last week, Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank informed the Lok Sabha that the highest number of complaints over the mid-day meal scheme were from Uttar Pradesh.