During the visit, the officials, including Joint Secretary HRD ministry Anant Kumar Singh and Mid Day Meal Additional Director Santosh Rai, found improper cooking of meals and fake attendance.

At a school in Lahuriban in Sitapur district it was found that the food was being cooked in open, instead of the mandatory kitchen shed. Also, the pradhaan was using the school premises for commercial purpose as he had grown mustard in the area and had rented out the building for a marriage ceremony.

Similarly, in the Naya Gaon village in Sitapur, meals were not provided to children for the past few days as the pradhaan was “unwell.”

“It is the responsibility of the pradhaan to provide them meals as they are given the food grains and conversion cost. The children should not suffer,” said Rajesh Verma, Basic Shiskha Adhikari, Sitapur. He also said that FIRs will be lodged against the erring pradhaans.

Meanwhile, the state department officials shirked off their responsibility and instead held gram pradhaans and teachers responsible for such irregularities.

“Problems are taking place because of the gram pradhaans. Despite being provided with food grains and conversion cost, they are not ensuring regular mid day meals to children,” said Santosh Rai, Additional Director, Mid Day Meal Authority. Meanwhile, at another school in Belwa in Lucknow, the officials found that the teacher had shown the numbers of children present on the day as 66 while the head count was only 45.