Hyderabad: At least 16 female students from the Kasturbha Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya in Pentlavelli Mandal, Nagarkurnool District fell ill due to alleged food poisoning on Monday, August 5.
The girls were rushed to the Kollapur govt hospital after consuming a meal at the hostel. Telangana tourism minister Jupalli Krishna Rao visited the hospital and met the students.
Following the incident, Nagarkurnool collector Badavath Santhosh, along with officials inspected KGBV Pentlavelli and had lunch with the students to check the quality of the food being served.
Speaking with the media, he said that all the girls admitted to Kollapur government hospital have recovered and a medical team has been instructed to monitor their health.
He said that as per the request of the students, a Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant was going to be installed for the residential school. The school has been directed to maintain hygiene while handling the food and monitor the quality of the raw ingredients including the vegetables being supplied to the school.
On Saturday, scores of female students studying in the Government Model School in Veldanda, of the same district, took ill after consuming spoilt food and were rushed to a government hospital in the area. A few who were relatively better were taken home by their parents.
An intermediate first-year MPC student, Jeysa, studying at the model residential school stated that her classmates consumed contaminated food on the school’s premises and developed stomach-related ailments on several occasions at night.
“We don’t even have a vehicle to take us to a government hospital which is quite far away. Because of that we have been sharing money between ourselves and paying the private hospitals located close to the school. Our parents can’t afford that kind of money and we don’t have the money. We need a vehicle, medicines and a nurse to respond to our emergencies,” a student explained the situation before the media.
Another student said that despite repeated complaints given to the warden and other officials, they were only being assured that the food was going to be better from then onwards. However, to no respite.
The students alleged they were not getting clean drinking water and the overhead tanks were filled with algae. They added that even their bathrooms did not have proper doors.
The students warned that they would complain to the district collector if the situation didn’t improve.
On the same day, students from Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) in Nacharam village of Kosgi mandal, Narayanpet, which is located in Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy’s constituency, jumped over the boundary walls of their residential school. They attempted to hold a sit-in on the main road to draw attention to their plight.
“From morning to evening we find insects and flies in the food served to us. They are also found in the drinking water being served. Even when we have a health issue they just don’t care. We don’t want the SO madam (special officer). We want another madam,” said a class IX student, speaking with media persons.
She said that they had been suffering from the food and drinking water problem for three weeks.
“Today, despite sustaining injuries while jumping the wall we have all gathered here. So many people have come in our support. When we show them the plate with insects in the food, they ask us to throw it in the dustbin and get another portion served. But even that contains insects,” the student complained.
Another student has alleged that the food was not being served as per the menu.
In both the schools, the students complained that the administration needed to be changed immediately, innocently hoping that they could probably get better food if new ‘madams’ were posted in their schools.
Even as Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy has been announcing sweeping changes to the school education system with assurances to provide better facilities and infrastructure for government schools, students in residential schools have been falling sick, and taking to the roads against the substandard food being served to them.
It has to be mentioned that a majority of female students studying in KGBVs belong to the poorest families.
For most KGBVs in Telangana, food is prepared at centralised kitchens located outside the campus, many of them owned and operated by the Hare Krishna Charities. According to their website, they have been serving 15,000 meals per day in the erstwhile Mahabubnagar district.
It was not known whether the food served in this particular school came from one of the centralised kitchens of the Hare Krishna Charities, but most of the KGBVs do receive food from there.
It needs to be determined whether the poor quality and insects being found in the food was happening in their centralised quantity kitchens, or due to the poor handling and storage of food within the school’s premises.
At a time when the state government has been considering constructing centralised kitchens so that the delivery of food to educational institutions could be streamlined, there are still several issues that need to be resolved.
Issues of Cooking conditions, transportation, handling of food, temporary storage and maintenance of cleanliness at the schools, need to be addressed.
A representation has been submitted to chief minister A Revanth Reddy against the idea of centralisation of food production, and suggested improvement of facilities and infrastructure in schools so that the children could get hygienic and nutritious food
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