As many as seven teachers of Mansantosh Part Basic School of Nandakumar police station of East Medinipur district surprised the students by providing hilsa fish in their mid-day meal. The teachers have contributed money from their salary and bought 15 kg of hilsa fish to feed the students at mid-day meal ahead of Durga Puja.
A total of 185 students were given hilsa fish. Along with hilsa fish curry, the students were given pumpkin curry and chutney in mid-day meal. Considered as one of the costliest fish in Bengal, Hilsa was not found abundantly in the market for the past two years. Hence, the price of Hilsa fish is sky high post-pandemic, and is not very common in middle class families.
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The headmistress of the school along with other teachers all arranged to feed the students with hilsa fish at mid-day meal, said Sushant Kumar Bera, assistant teacher of Mansantosh Part Basic School. “We spend most of the day at school. So we thought if we could make them happy by changing the mid-day meal menu for a day, so we arranged to feed them hilsa fish before the Puja,” added Bera.
One of the students of the school, who was very excited to have this new item on the menu said, “On the other days we eat vegetables, fish or eggs. But today, the teachers all made us eat hilsa fish. We liked it very much. There was potato curry and chutney also with hilsa fish.”
In 2015, this school had received Nirmal Vidyalaya Award. The school has students from kindergarten to class 4. Computer classes are also conducted in the school.
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Meanwhile, there have been many complaints about mid-day meals from different parts of the state. While some students complained insects were found in food, others said dirt of lizard and snakes are visible in the food. Many a time children get sick after eating those foods. In several places in West Bengal, local residents protested in front of the Anganwadi center for providing unhealthy food. Multiple complaints have also been filed. However, it has been alleged that nothing has changed.
Earlier this month, at least 12 school children of a state-run primary school in West Bengal’s North Dinajpur fell sick after having mid-day meal. It was later revealed that the cook had mixed detergent powder instead of salt in the food by mistake. The incident took place on Saturday afternoon after the students of Chilimpur Primary School at Itahar village. The children were given ‘khichuri’ as a midday meal but they started vomiting and were immediately shifted to the Itahar rural hospital.
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