Food poisoning in Telangana govt schools: Task forces, safety committees formed

The institutional-level committees will have the responsibility of overseeing the cooking and the quality of the food being served at the government schools.

Hyderabad: In order to probe the increasing number of food poisoning cases in government-run schools, the Telangana government ordered the formation of institution-level food safety committees and district-level task force committees on Wednesday, November 27.The institutional-level committees are tasked with overseeing the cooking and the quality of the food being served at government-run schools in the state. Each school-level committee will be constituted of the respective head of the institution, and two other staff members.The government has directed the committee members to inspect the store room and the kitchen premises before every meal. The members should ensure the quality and taste personally before being served to the students. The officials on the committee should take pictures and keep a record of the check without fail for every meal served at the schools.District collectors have been directed to appoint officers at mandal, division, and district levels as supervisory officers, and they should personally check every school in their jurisdiction, as much as possible.

The committees will come into effect in every government-run school, residential school, welfare hostel, Anganwadi centre working under scheduled caste development, tribal welfare, BC welfare, minority welfare, women development and child welfare department, school education and medical, health and FW departments.

Task Force to inspect schools

The government has decided to institute inspection task forces in the districts, to ensure food safety and to develop an institutional mechanism. The task force committees will be constituted of the food safety commissioner or a food safety officer, the institution head, and a designated district-level officer.The task force is directed to visit and enquire into all food safety incidents reported in any institution, identify the shortfalls and hold the responsible personnel accountable. The task force committee is directed to submit their reports to the chief secretary at the earliest, on the occurrence of any incident.