Md. Samiul Alam, Birampur (Dinajpur)

A group of people, questioning the government's school feeding program at Dakshin Shahabajpur Primary School in Birampur Upazila of Dinajpur, has drawn widespread criticism after posting photos and videos of moldy expired bread on Facebook, sparking criticism that the school was not provided with a projector to watch the World Cup football match.

In light of this, a few journalists from the Press Club went to verify the matter on the spot on Thursday and the facts of the disgusting propaganda came to light.

The school feeding program was launched by the government to increase the attendance of students in primary schools, focus on their studies and ensure their nutrition.

Since December 28, an organization named Eco-Social Development Organization (ESDO) has been implementing the project of distributing bread, bananas, eggs, biscuits and milk among the students of 116 primary schools in Birampur Upazila. Under the supervision of the Upazila Primary Education Office, school teachers and local committees receive the food of this school feeding program every day by checking the production date and distribute it among the children. Such initiatives have been widely appreciated by students, guardians and the local level. But recently, a video was posted on Facebook alleging that some expired breads containing mold were distributed at the Dakshin Shahabajpur Government Primary School in the upazila.

Students present at the school, including 5th grader Labib, 4th grader Sanjid, Maya and some parents, said that they are served good quality food every day. The complainants brought stale bread from home, took pictures and videos of it and left it. None of us got stale bread, but how did they get it? The students who spoke in the propaganda video said that some people, including a student's uncle, asked us to recite the words they had learned that day. We got good bread.

The school's headmaster, Moniruzzaman, said that bread is received and distributed every day based on its production date. Bread was received and distributed based on the date of the incident. Although no one complained about it, some youths tried to create chaos in the school premises by bringing stale, moldy bread from their homes that was a few days old (4th) ago. Although all the students received fresh bread, only the complainants could not give a good answer when asked how they got the bread that was a few days old. He also said that some local youths offered to take the school's projector to watch the ongoing World Cup football match. Since it was a government projector, they were not given it, so they brought stale, moldy and moldy bread from their homes and staged a terrible drama.

Shah Md. Aminul Haque, Dinajpur District Manager of the School Feeding Program of the project implementing agency Eco-Social Development Organization (ESDO), said, "I saw the matter on Facebook and came to visit the school and found that a vested interest group has committed such an incident to question a successful initiative of the government and to achieve nefarious interests. We supply these foods through strict quality control. So there is no chance of such a mistake on our part."

Upazila Primary Education Officer Runa Laila said, "No one has complained to me about the incident. Food is received and distributed through a committee in every school. There is no opportunity to supply stale and substandard food there.

However, after checking various schools in this regard, I found that no such incident has taken place anywhere in the upazila. Fresh bread is being distributed in all schools in the upazila. The fact that only one school received a few expired breads is mysterious." Quoting the headmaster, she also said, "A group may have planned such an incident because the school did not provide a government projector to watch football games. However, if we receive any complaint, we will take appropriate action in this regard."