Villagers stop mid-day meals in Odisha school over ‘plastic’ rice 

BALANGIR: Alleging poor quality food being served to students, residents of Jhankripali village under Khaprakhol block entered the local primary school and forcibly stopped the mid-day meal programme on Friday. Sources say a group of villagers including the school committee president entered the school and stopped the distribution of mid-day meals being served to children on grounds that the rice was ‘plastic’. 

School committee president Jaladhara Tandi said many students complained of bad taste of rice two days back, leading to speculation of artificial rice being served in the meals. “We examined the rice being given to the children and found that the bigger grains, on being burnt, smell like plastic. We therefore stopped the school authorities from cooking the rice,” the villagers said.

Headmaster Akash mandal said after getting the complaint from the villagers, school authorities arranged dry food for students and reported the matter to higher authorities. Dismissing the rumours, district education officer (DEO) Dhruba Charan Behera said the grains being called ‘plastic’ are fortified rice mixed with the normal ones. “It is not plastic but fortified rice which is high on nutritional value. The villagers will be assured of the same,” Behera clarified.