Malad school sent ‘plastic’ rice in mid-day meals

Teachers say the rice is inedible

The management of a Malad school has approached the BMC and police, over ‘plastic' rice it claims to have received under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, provided to their 450 students. The parents complained to the school that the rice does not get cooked even after an hour and is very tough to chew. The BMC will send a team to the school today to get samples of the rice tested. The Kurar police have said they will act in the matter after the test. However, BMC Education Officer claims the rice is not ‘plastic,' it is actually ‘fortified with nutrition'.

Earlier, students of the Pathanwadi Urdu Primary and High School at Kurar village were given khichdi under the scheme, but due to the COVID-19 restrictions, they are now being given rice, chana, dal, which is distributed to their parents by the school. School authorities also claimed that when they started distributing rice to the parents they found the quantity of rice in every sack was less than 50 kg.

Secondary school principal Shabana Shaikh shows the sacks, each of which were to contain 50 kg, but had only about 32 kg rice

‘It doesn't cook'

Speaking to mid-day, the primary school's principal, Mehjabeen Sayyed said, "Our's is a privately aided school. We have around 450 students in the primary and secondary school. When the restrictions began, our students had not received any mid-day meal and 107 days of mid-day meals were pending. On September 1, we got a call from Shree Cargo Services saying they would drop our consignment under the scheme, rice for the 107 days in 52 sacks, each containing 50 kg.

"But when we were distributing the rice to the parents, we found each sack only had about 30 kg-32 kg. Also, parents later complained that the rice was not cooking and while eating, it felt like rubber. The rice looks plastic. We told the parents to soak the rice for sometime before cooking, but they said it still doesn't cook." Shabana Shaikh, principal of the secondary school said, "Our school received only 1,500 kg rice instead of 2,600 kg. The rice is inedible and we informed the school management and police and BMC. The truth will come out soon."

School chairman Dr Azimuddin Sayyed said, "The government should take strict action against the culprits for endangering the lives of students by giving them this plastic rice. We complained to the Kurar police and BMC. Today, BMC will send samples of the rice to a laboratory to test it."

BMC Education Officer (EO) Raju Tadvi said the rice was not ‘plastic' and was actually fortified. "We had issued a circular on August 4 to schools that we are now supplying rice which is fortified with nutrition and is not plastic. We had also issued guidelines that schools have to check the quantity before accepting the rice.

If the school authority has doubts about the quality of the rice then they can take a sample to the BMC laboratory at G North ward. The school is responsible for checking the quality and quantity. If we find fault with the rice after it is tested, we will take action against the contractor. If the rice quality is fine, we will take action against the school for not checking the quantity and quality of the rice."

"We have received a complaint from the Pathanwadi Urdu High school. We informed the BMC about it. We are awaiting for BMC test report. We will act if needed, after that," said Senior Inspector Prakash Bele of Kurar police station.

Also Read: Teachers' Day 2021: New teachers share experiences from their pandemic-induced virtual debut