Telangana forms Task Force to check food contamination in schools, hostels

Hyderabad, Nov 28 Alarmed over a series of incidents of food contamination in government-run schools, welfare hostels and hospitals in Telangana, the state government on Thursday constituted a Task Force for all the institutions to ensure food safety.

The three-member Task Force committee for each institution will comprise the Commissioner, Food Safety or food safety officer, the head of the department of the concerned institution and the district-level officer of the concerned institution.

The Task Force committees will be constituted for each school, welfare hostel, residential school, Anganwadi centre and hospital to ensure food safety and develop an institutional mechanism.

Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari issued an order in this regard on Thursday.

"The Task Force committee shall visit and enquire into all food safety incidents reported in any institution, identify the reasons and fix up the responsibility against the persons and agencies responsible for such incidents," reads the order.

The Chief Secretary has asked all Task Force committees to submit detailed reports to her immediately.

The Scheduled Caste Development Department issued a separate order to constitute an institution-level food safety committee to oversee the implementation of cooking and serving food in various institutions to prevent food contamination and food-borne illnesses.

Each committee will consist of the head of the institution and two other staff members working in the institution.

As per the order, the committee shall inspect the store room and kitchen before cooking every meal and ensure the quality of provisions and hygiene. The committee members should taste the food after every meal preparation to check food quality and then only it should be served to all children.

The committee should click the photos of their activities every day and keep a record till the Nodal Department develops a mobile-based app that would allow instant uploading of photos taken in each institution before every meal.

The orders were issued after Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy Hyderabad expressed his ire over a series of food poisoning incidents at government-run residential schools and hostels.

He warned that the officials found negligent would be dismissed from service.

Day after Telangana High Court pulled up the government over the incidents, the Chief Minister directed the district Collectors to take action against officials found negligent.

He asked the Collectors to treat students in government schools as their own children and ensure that they get quality food. The Collectors were directed to leave no scope for negligence.