BJP stages protest over food contamination in Telangana schools

Hyderabad (The Uttam Hindu): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists on Friday tried to lay siege to Damodaram Sanjeevaiah Sankshema Bhavan here to protest against the food contamination at government-run residential schools and hostels. Leaders and workers of BJP OBC Morcha and Mahila Morcha tried to assemble outside the building which houses the offices of various welfare departments. Police tried to stop the protesters, leading to an argument between both sides. The protest led to a tense situation around the building in the Masab Tank area.

Police arrested the protesting leaders and activists and physically lifted them to police vehicles. They included OBC Morcha president Anand Goud and Mahila Morcha president Shilpa Reddy. They were shifted to Goshamahal Stadium. The BJP leaders held the Congress government responsible for the incidents of food poisoning in government-run schools, hostels and residential schools run by different departments for the welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the Backward Classes. The state government on Thursday constituted a Task Force to check food contamination in government-run schools, welfare hostels and hospitals.

The three-member Task Force committee for each institution will comprise the Commissioner, Food Safety or food safety officer, the head of the department of the concerned institution and district level officer of the concerned institution. The Task Force committees will be constituted for each school, welfare hostel, residential school, Anganwadi centre and hospital to ensure food safety and develop an institutional mechanism. The Scheduled Caste Development Department issued a separate order to constitute an institution-level food safety committee to oversee the implementation of cooking and serving food in various institutions to prevent food contamination and food-borne illnesses.

Each committee will consist of the head of the institution and two other staff members working in the institution. As per the order, the committee shall inspect the store room and kitchen before cooking every meal and ensure the quality of provisions and hygiene in the kitchen room. The committee members should taste the food after every meal preparation to check food quality and then only it should be served to all children. The orders were issued after Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy expressed his ire over a series of food poisoning incidents at government-run residential schools and hostels.

He warned that the officials found negligent would be dismissed from service. After the Telangana High Court pulled up the government over the incidents, the Chief Minister directed the District Collectors to take action against officials found negligent.