Hyderabad: Labour and Mines Minister G Vivek Venkatswamy directed the Circle Inspector to take action against Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders who entered a government minority residential school in Chennur and photographed conditions inside, even as no action was reported against staff responsible for serving students substandard food.
The incident came to light after BRS cadres, led by former Zilla Parishad vice chairperson Mula Raji Reddy, inspected the school on Saturday, July 6, following reports that students were being served rice with chilli powder in place of curries.
Raji Reddy criticised the minister for neglecting the students and said the state government had weakened the residential education system, affecting thousands of students across such institutions.
According to local reports, students at the school had gone without adequate meals for several days, with some resorting to eating rice with chilli powder due to insufficient food being cooked at the hostel.
The minister directed the Circle Inspector to act against the BRS leaders who visited the hostel and took photographs, rather than against the staff responsible for the food served to students.
The Congress government has repeatedly cited a 40 per cent hike in diet allocation for welfare residential schools and hostels as evidence of its focus on food quality, with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy blaming the previous BRS government for neglecting diet charges for years. The Chennur incident, however, points to continuing gaps between the stated policy focus and the food actually reaching students on the ground.
The school falls under the Chennur assembly constituency represented by Venkatswamy, who also holds the labour, employment, mines and geology portfolios in the state cabinet.
