Parents of students of a state-aided school in Salt Lake staged a protest on Wednesday when the school distributed midday meal rations, alleging rice and potato packets weighed less than the stipulated weight.
Close to 40 men and women had walked or cycled to Salt Lake Primary School in AC Block (Ward 41) to collect packets of rice and potatoes (3kg of each) allotted to each student.
Aparna Halder, 36, a homemaker from Kestopur, said a weighing scale was brought from a nearby market as many parents felt each of the packets weighed less than 3kg.
The protesting parents and the school authorities alerted the ward councillor about the suspected irregularity. “Our suspicion was proved right as we weighed multiple packets of rice and potatoes… we started a protest in front of the school's gate,” Halder said.
Councillor Anindya Chatterjee reached the school along with a team of civic workers. After speaking to the parents, Chatterjee got another set of scales from the AB-AC market. “I asked the civic workers to measure some packets randomly. Every packet we checked weighed less than 3kg.”
An education department official of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation is in charge of disbursing the packets from a central kitchen on the compound of Tank No. 12 near GD market.
“They later sent additional packets, which were distributed. We handed out packets meant for the needy to the parents to calm them,” Chatterjee said.
Rajesh Chirimar, the mayoral council member in charge of education, said it was difficult to weigh every packet because of staff shortage. “Given the number of students, we have to distribute 78,000 packets of rice and an equal number of potato packets. Even teachers are not trained for this.”
The state government has decided to provide students with such packets as midday meals cannot be served during the lockdown. The distribution will continue till April 30. Every student has been given a collection date.