UP school burns books to cook mid-day meal

They were meant to be distributed among the children of the school free of cost. They were, instead, being used in place of fuel to prepare the mid-day meal.
 
In a shocking incident, government supplied books were found to have been burnt to cook mid-day meal at a primary school in Uttar Pradesh's Basti district, about 200 kilometres, from here.
 
According to the reports, the principal of the primary school at Daridiha village in the district allegedly allowed the cook to burn the books after the latter told her on Saturday morning that the stock of firewood was finished.
 
The cook then prepared the mid-day meal by burning the books.A resident of the village, who happened to be passing by, saw the books being burnt and informed the district education officials. He also prepared a video of the burning books and uploaded the same on the social networking sites, reports said.
 
An official of the district basic education department reached the school on getting the information and found half burnt books in the brick stove.
 
On being queried the principal said that the books were old. She was however at a loss for words when pointed out that even old books were meant to be distributed among the children.
 
Taking strong exception to the matter, the official immediate suspension of the principal of the school Noorin Fatima and ordered a probe into the matter.
 
UP government spends crores every year on providing books, uniform and satchels to the primary school children free of cost. No wonder all efforts of the government to improve the standard of primary education in the state end in smoke.