File picture of students having midday meal at their school

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 22: The state government today admitted the absence of cooking sheds in its schools amid allegations of midday meal being cooked in unhygienic conditions.

The cooking sheds are under construction in 2,21,173 schools, while it is yet to be set up in another 10,930 schools, said school and mass education minister Rabi Narayan Nanda while replying to a query of Congress MLA Nanda Kishore das in the Assembly during the Question Hour.

Nanda said the Centre had allocated Rs 405.79 crore in two instalments, between 2006-07 and 2009-10, to build the cooking sheds in 69,152 schools across the state. “The sheds have already been erected in 32,049 schools and order has been issued to complete the half-constructed sheds by Dusshera (October). We are also monitoring the work on a regular basis,” he said.

Apart from Opposition leaders, several BJD MLAs also expressed concern over the unhygienic standards for cooking midday meal. They reminded the school and mass education minister about recent reports of lizards and earthworms being found in the food as it was cooked in open spaces and also of students falling sick after consuming the meal.

In the wake of the Bihar midday meal tragedy, which claimed 23 lives in July, the state government decided to form a special squad at the district and block levels to check the quality of cooked food as well as construct kitchen sheds in all schools.

The new guidelines suggested constitution of a three-member team, consisting of a school management committee member, cook and assistant cook, who would taste the food before it is served to the students, in each school. The headmaster will monitor the entire system.

However, the poor progress in the shed construction reflected in a heated debate in the Assembly. The minister said around Rs 66,000 had been allocated for construction of each shed, and the collectors had been empowered to sanction the money.

“If school authorities are finding it difficult to build the cooking sheds within the allocated funds, they can request for more money under the Integrated Action Plan and the Backward Regions Grant Fund. The money, which has remained unspent, has been deposited in the account meant for midday meal scheme and also with the block development officers,” Nanda said.

Official statistics suggest the midday meal scheme covers nearly 52 lakh children in 63,531 primary and upper-primary schools of Odisha. Of this, 36.66 lakh students are in primary schools and 15.32 lakh in upper primary schools.

The students are being served rice and dalma on Mondays and Thursdays, rice and soyabean curry on Tuesdays and Fridays, rice and egg curry on Wednesdays and Saturdays.