Bhubaneswar: Schools across Odisha will continue to serve midday meals (MDMs) to students from the very first day of their reopening after the summer vacation on June 18.

The State Project Management Unit (PM Poshan) under the School and Mass Education (S&ME) department today sent a letter in this regard to all District Education Officers (DEOs) in Odisha.

“Midday meal is the right of every child (6 to 14 years) attending schools from Class-I to Class-VIII. So, no child shall be deprived of his/her right because of the unpreparedness on the part of school management authorities of central kitchen agencies. Therefore, all sorts of preparedness and precautions are to be taken beforehand to serve Mid-day meal from the first day of reopening of schools,” read the letter.

The government has asked the schools to strictly check the quality and edibility of unutilized ingredients rice, dal, oil, soya chunk and condiments, stored prior to the commencement of the summer vacation, before handing them over to the cook-cum-helpers or women Self-help Groups.

The headmasters of the schools have been directed to strictly check the quality of the unutilized ingredients to avoid any incident of food poisoning.

Besides, the DEOs, Block Education Officers (BEOs) and Cluster Resource Centre Coordinators (CRCCs) have been told to carry out random check of midday meal ingredients on the day of the reopening of schools to avoid any untoward incident.