Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday ordered a probe into the alleged anomalies in midday meal distribution, within hours of workers blocking national highways across the state.
The chief minister directed principal secretary (food, civil supplies and consumer affairs), Biswaranjan Samal, to submit the report within a month. Accordingly, midday meal cooks and helpers, who have been protesting against the government’s decision to hand over the cooking and supplying of meals to NGOs, have been asked to resume their tasks.
Axom Sarba Siksha Abhiyan mission director Samsher Singh said, “The probe order has temporarily put on hold the midday meal exercise. The investigation will critically look into the alleged anomalies. During the investigation period, midday meal cooks and helpers will resume the earlier system.”
However, he denied any reports of children suffering food poisoning by consuming meals cooked by NGOs. “I have not received any reports of food poisoning,” he said.
Lakhimpur district health services joint director Harpal Singh Suri said a team, comprising doctors, food safety officials and administrative staff, rushed to Sinatolia tea garden hospital under Boginadi block on Friday and examined 23 students who complained of abdominal pain, vomiting and fever. “However, only five students were admitted for observation on Friday and treated. They were discharged from hospital on Saturday morning. They are out of danger.”
Suri said samples of cooked meals, supplied by the NGO Paras Agro Society, were also sent for testing to the state food testing laboratory at Bamunimaidam here.
Tinsukia assistant deputy commissioner Shyamal Khetra Gogoi said 11 students were admitted to the civil hospital for possible food poisoning. “All the students are under observation. They are out of danger and have no sign of food poisoning,” he said.
He said four students were admitted on Friday and another seven on Saturday. The students are from Panitola and Baruahola in the district.
Despite the chief minister’s announcement, the All Assam Primary and Upper Primary Midday Meal Cook and Helper Association adviser Trishna Nath said the protests will continue till the cooks and helpers are permanently reinstated.
“We want written assurance from the chief minister and the education minister that cooks and helpers would be reinstated. We will not accept a temporary solution. The state government must remove NGOs from preparing and supplying midday meals,” she said.
The association blocked national highways at Kaliabor in Nagaon district, Golaghat and Tinsukia on Saturday. However, the protesters were evicted by the police on the ground that the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Ayodhya case might cause law-and-order problem.
Activists of SFI, DYFI, Assam State Krishak Sabha, All India Democratic Women’s Association, Citu, Joint Council of Trade Unions and Guwahati Mahanagar Unnayan Samiti also staged a protest here and submitted a memorandum to the chief minister through additional deputy commissioner of police Gunendra Deka.
In the memorandum, the organisations demanded the immediate suspension of the NGOs. They demanded that the government consider midday meal workers as grade-IV employees, investigate the alleged food poisoning and arrest the culprits at the earliest.
Expressing concern over the alleged food poisoning in Lakhimpur and Tinsukia, the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti condemned the state government and the NGOs engaged in preparing and supplying midday meals.
KMSS leader Dharya Konwar said, “Education minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya has completely failed in managing the midday meal services. The recent food poisoning is nothing other than the inability of the minister to handle the system. This is a gross inhuman act by the state government.”
Konwar also condemned the district administrations for lack of monitoring. “We appeal to the chief minister to intervene and arrest the culprits, whether government servants or NGO workers, at the earliest,” he said.
