Telangana forms committees to ensure food safety in govt schools amid rise in food poisoning

HYDERABAD: Amid the reports of food poisoning incidents in government schools, the Telangana government on Thursday constituted separate committees to ensure the safety of food served to the students. Taking serious note of such incidents, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy directed district Collectors to undertake regular inspections in state-run educational institutions to ensure that there is no negligence in providing hygienic food to the students.

Expressing anguish over the incidents of students falling ill after eating food, despite several directives given by him, CM warned that once the negligence was proved, the government would not hesitate to sack the employees responsible for that. State Panchayat Raj Minister D Anasuya Seethakka expressed doubts that conspiracies could be behind the 'food poisoning' incidents and vowed to expose them.

State Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari issued orders constituting a three-member 'Task Force Committee' to ensure the safety of food distributed in all the state-run institutions, including schools, welfare hostels, residential schools, hospitals, and Anganwadi Centres running under the departments of scheduled caste development, tribal, backward classes, minority welfare and others.

The 'Task Force Committee' shall consist Commissioner of Food Safety/Food Safety Officer, Head of the Department (HoD) of the concerned institution/Additional Director, and District level officer of the concerned institution. The Committee should visit and probe all food safety incidents reported in any institution, identify the reasons, and fix the responsibility against the persons and agencies, the orders issued by the Chief Secretary said. Separately, the Chief Secretary issued an order to constitute institution-level food safety committees to oversee the cooking and serving of food to prevent food contamination and food-borne illnesses.

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Role of Task Force Committee

The committee shall consist Head of the Institution (Head Master/Principal) and two other staff members working in the institution. The panel shall inspect the store room and kitchen before cooking every meal and ensure the quality of provisions and hygiene in the kitchen room, the order said.

The committee members should taste the food after the preparation of every meal to check the quality of the food before serving it to the children, the order said. The committee should take photos of these activities and keep them in the record without fail till a 'nodal department' develops a mobile-based app that would allow instant uploading of photos taken in each institution, it said.

Alleging that BRS is shedding crocodile tears on the incidents of students falling ill, Minister Seethakka on Thursday asked if any minister visited the victims when such incidents happened during the previous BRS regime. "We will expose such conspiracies... If any officials are involved in such conspiracies, we will file criminal cases and remove them from service," she told reporters.

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BRS Working President K T Rama Rao on Wednesday said his party MLAs and other leaders would visit the state-run educational institutions between November 30 and December 7 to study the conditions there. He alleged that the Congress government has thrown school education and social welfare residential schools into a crisis.

The Telangana High Court on Wednesday sought a report from the government by December 2 over the recent incidents of students falling ill after consuming mid-day meals in government schools.