Dead lizard found in mid-day meal at primary school

Greater Noida: A dead lizard was found in the mid-day meal that was going to be served to students of a primary school at Rampur Kadar village in Greater Noida on Monday.
Around 11am, when the students were about to have their lunch during recess, a teacher noticed the dead lizard in the food. Fortunately, it was spotted before the contaminated food could be served to the students. The matter was then conveyed to the principal of the school and later to the basic shiksha adhikari.
“A senior teacher at the school spotted the dead lizard in a curry when she removed the lid that covered it. No student ate the contaminated food,” said Nityanand Sharma, the principal of the school. He added, “The teacher immediately took pictures of the lizard in the food and reached out to higher authorities. While the food was thrown, a complaint against the NGO that provided the food has been lodged in the office of the basic shiksha adhikari.”
According to Bal Mukund, BSA (Gautam Buddha Nagar), an NGO named Janhitkari Sansthan was given the contract of preparing and serving food to students of the school three years ago at the rate of Rs 4.50 per child in primary section while for students in the junior section, the rate is Rs 6.50 per student.
He added, “The school has a total of 69 students in the primary section and 8 students in the junior section. The incident has been taken very seriously and we have reprimanded the NGO. We will ensure that the contract does not get renewed in the coming session because a blunder like this can cost the lives of children.”
Meanwhile, Vinesh Kumar, in-charge of the NGO that prepared the food for students, told TOI that the same food was served in 45 other schools. He alleged that the lizard was in the utensil, in which the school stored the food.
“The NGO prepares food for many government schools in the district and the food is always fresh and checked for quality. Today, the school teachers took food for 15 students only. I strongly believe that the lizard was already there in the utensil before the curry was poured into it,” said Kumar.