Nainital: Uttarakhand high court directed the principal secretary of school education department to submit report by next Monday (February 25) in the alleged irregularities in the midday meal scheme at Kissan Vidyalay Inter College Luxar, Haridwar district.The division bench of chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice RC Khulbe was hearing a public interest litigation of Luxar-based social activist Somendra Kumar. Even after repeated complaints when the matter was not taken up, Kumar had filed a PIL in July 2018 alleging irregularities in the midday meal scheme at the school.Siddharth Sah, counsel for the petitioner told TOI, “The investigation report by responsible officers have not been satisfactory after which the court asked the state government officials to submit a report by Monday.”The scam came to light in 2016-17 when schoolchildren informed their parents that they were not getting food in the school. Following which, parents approached the school administration, but the principal refused to listen to them.Left with no other option, the parents then secretly installed spy cams on the school premises. When they checked the footage after two months, they were shocked to see that in 60 days, the children got meal only on 14 occasions. The parents then submitted the evidence along with a written complaint to the local authorities.The tehsildar then investigated the accusations and found the claims to be true but didn’t forward the report to the higher authority. Interestingly, the matter was later reinvestigated by the same officer who changed the report and held that the accusations were false.The parents then complained to the higher authorities but were not satisfied with their findings, following which the PIL was filed.A complainant, Virendra Kumar, whose son studied in the school, said, ‘My child told us that they were not getting food regularly at the school. I had then taken up the matter with the school administration but the principal paid no heed to our words.”

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