Roti-Salt For Lunch: Have We Forgotten Why Mid-day Meals Began?

Students of a government school in Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur district were seen in a video eating rotis with just some salt as their mid-day meal. According to NDTV, the video going viral shows students of classes 1- 8 of the government primary school.
The UP government’s website shows an elaborate menu for mid-day meal which includes pulses, rice, rotis, vegetables, fruits, and milk.
According to the Centre, the flagship scheme should provide a minimum of 450 calories per child per day, including atleast 12 gram of protein.
After the video went viral the administration ordered a probe, “I got an inquiry conducted and the incident has been found to be true. Prima facie, it is the fault of the teacher in charge of the school and the supervisor at the gram panchayat. Both have been suspended,” Anurag Patel, District Magistrate Mirzapur said.
Recently, students of a girls school in West Bengal’s Hooghly were reportedly served just boiled rice and salt as mid-day meal. Citing the matter as inhumane, the state’s Education Minister Partha Chatterjee ordered a departmental probe into it, reported Indian Express.