Hyderabad: The division bench of the Telangana High Court hearing the public interest litigation (PIL) on the recent incidents of food poisoning in government schools has ordered the state government to submit the reports of the special task force set up by the state government to conduct an inquiry into the two incidents within four weeks and posted the matter for hearing after six weeks.
On Thursday, December 5, the High Court division bench comprising chief justice Alok Aradhe and justice J Srinivas Rao was hearing the PIL filed by Guru Teja regarding the food poisoning incidents that took place at ZPHS Maganur in Narayanpet district on November 20, 21, and 26, and in Gurukul school at Burgupalli village of Gangadhara mandal in Karimnagar district on November 22.
More than 70 students reportedly fell ill after consuming the mid-day meal in those schools.
The state government suspended the staff of the concerned schools after the incident and issued a memo on November 27 to form state-level and district-level task force committees to inspect the mid-day meals in all government schools. They were also assigned the task of inspecting incidents of food poisoning in schools.
The additional advocate general, Imran Khan, sought to dispose of the PIL, stating that the state government had already complied with the court’s directions.
However, advocate Chikkudu Prabhakar, who represented the petitioner, argued that in 2015 itself, state, district, and mandal-level committees were formed, with the school education commissioner and director acting as the nodal agency to oversee the implementation of the mid-day meal scheme brought under the PM Poshan Abhiyan. He contended that the rules of the scheme framed in 2015 were not being implemented.
After listening to both parties, the division bench gave the state government four weeks to submit the report to the special task force committee on the two incidents and posted the matter for hearing after six weeks.
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