The Free Press Journal on June 2 published a story regarding worms being found in the mid-day meal, a government scheme to provide nutritional food to children at pre-primary schools (anganwadi), at one of the centres on Sinhgad Road in Pune.
Kids aged from six months to three years are given food packets of moong dal khichdi premix from the government under the mid-day meal scheme. However, the food packets distributed in one of the anganwadi centres on Sinhgad Road were found to be of poor quality. Worms were found in the khichdi mix.
Archana Navgire, a relative of a child who found the worms in the food packet, voiced her concern on X (formerly Twitter) and also reached out to the authorities regarding the matter.
"My nephew is enrolled in an anganwadi on Sinhgad Road. Children are susceptible and can fall sick after consuming expired food material. The packets of this food had an expiry date of 120 days, but when we opened the packets, they had worms and were not fit to consume. We want the authorities to take strict action against those responsible for distributing expired food packets," Navgire said.
Now, Baramati MP Supriya Sule has also voiced her concerns regarding the matter. Taking to X, the NCP (SP) leader tagged Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Office and demanded a thorough investigation and strict action against those responsible. She wrote, "Rat faeces, worms, and larvae were found in the nutritional food provided under the Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) in Janata Vasahat, Pune. This scheme is implemented to provide nutrition to children. It should be properly implemented but such incidents are very concerning. It is necessary to conduct a thorough investigation and take strict action against those responsible."
Meanwhile, FDA inspector Rupali Khapre told this newspaper that they have collected the samples and sent them to the lab.
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