Hyderabad: The increasing food poisoning cases in mess facilities in state-run educational institutions was attributed to the government’s failure to revise mess charges over the last five years as well as the rising prices of essential commodities.
Sources said contractors were unable to implement the menu prescribed by the welfare department because the government had not revised the mess charges since 2017. The government has been paying mess charges of Rs 950 per month, or Rs 31.66 per day, for students from Classes 3 to 7, Rs 1,100 per month or Rs 36.66 per day for students from Classes 8 to 10, and Rs 1,500 per month or Rs 50 per day for college students for providing breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Sources said, the social welfare department, which operates hostels in educational facilities from schools to universities and sets the menus that are served to students, requested a mess fee increase of at least 30 per cent in order to provide students with quality food and prevent food poisoning incidents.
The sources said contractors cannot afford to provide a high-quality breakfast at the current pricing, much less serve lunch and dinner. Therefore, they are supplying subpar food to prevent losses as a result of the sharp increase in the price of essential commodities in the last five years.
According to official sources in the welfare departments of Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and minorities, the current mess prices were set in 2017 when the price of an egg was Rs 2.50 per egg, which is now sold for Rs 6, the price of a banana was Rs 2 per banana, which is now Rs 4, the price of chicken was Rs 150 per kg, which is now Rs 300, the price of mutton was Rs 600 per kg, which is now Rs 800, and edible oil cost Rs 80 per kg as opposed to the current Rs 180.
Similarly, the prices of vegetables, milk, curd and other essential commodities besides prices of LPG cylinders have also increased significantly since 2017. However, there has been no corresponding revision of mess charges to be paid by the government to the students.
While contractors are not coming forward to manage messes in hostels fearing losses, those who are continuing their contracts are proving poor quality food and not hesitating to serve leftovers of the previous day to make up for their losses, which frequently results in food poisoning incidents.
