NAGPUR: The misuse of Nagpur Municipal Corporation's (NMC) nutritious diet scheme by teachers at a primary school in Tajnagar was exposed on
Wednesday following a raid. The teachers of this school had forced the self help group (SHG) supplying lunch to the school to provide them meat preparations twice a week.
NMC school students are provided free lunch by the civic body through women SHGs. Asmita women self-help group had been awarded the contract of supplying nutritious lunch to students of Tajnagar Urdu Primary School about two years ago. The teachers and non-teaching staffers told the SHG to provide them lunch too. As this was not a common demand, the SHG members complied.
However, the school staffers, including head mistress Smita Khobragade, were not satisfied with a simple meal. Within a few months, they started demanding that meat preparations be included in their lunch. Since the SHG's contract can be terminated if the headmistress complains to the NMC education department that the food provided by it is substandard, the SHG members decided to comply with their demand.
The issue reached a flashpoint when the school staff started demanding meat dishes twice a week on regular basis. This upset the budget of Asmita women's SHG. President Vidya Taksande and secretary Seema Raut lodged a complaint with Alka Dalal, chairperson of NMC women and child welfare committee, a fortnight ago.
Dalal passed on the information to NMC education department officials, but when no action was taken she met municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta on Wednesday morning. Gupta told her to conduct a raid on the school and take a school inspector along with her.
Dalal took school inspector Rehman and conducted a surprise raid during lunch hour. The squad found that three teachers had been supplied tiffins with meat dishes. The guilty persons, including headmistress Smita Khobragade and two teachers Razia Begam and Nusrat Jabeen were caught red-handed.
The teachers apparently have political backing because as soon as the news of the raid spread in Tajnagar, the local imam and some other men reached the school and started pressurising Dalal and Rehman to withdraw the case. The mob claimed that it was common practice in all schools and Tajnagar school was being targeted unnecessarily. The imam also asked mediapersons present at the spot to not make an issue out of it.
Dalal, however, did not give in to the pressure and returned to NMC central office immediately. She submitted an enquiry report to Gupta. The commissioner has ordered NMC education department to take action against the guilty persons within two days.