TN Collector Warns Parents Opposing Dalit Cook For Govt Breakfast Scheme

Recently, a section of parents reportedly stopped their wards from having breakfast at a primary school in Velanchettiyur in Aravakurichi block of Karur district.

Karur Collector inspecting morning breakfast scheme for government school students (File Photo)

Source : Twitter/@CollectorKarur

After some parents objected to a Scheduled Caste (SC) cook preparing food for students of a primary school under Tamil Nadu government's breakfast scheme, Karur Collector intervened and warned those parents of stringent action. Collector T Prabhushankar also said wanting to exclude the cook based on her caste amounts to discrimination and would invite punishment. Recently, a section of parents reportedly stopped their wards from having breakfast at a primary school in Velanchettiyur in Aravakurichi block of Karur district.

The parents resorted to the decision since the cook was from a Dalit community. However, the Collector on learning about this conducted a surprise inspection on Tuesday. 

During the inspection, he found out that only 12 of 27 students had breakfast at the school, as per a report on PTI.

The Collector said that they monitor the number of children having breakfast at all schools through a mobile app everyday and recently they found out that only 10 of the 27 students were having breakfast at that particular school. 

"We advised the parents about five days ago not to discriminate and following this, two-three children started taking the breakfast and 15 children were not taking the breakfast continuously," the Collector told PTI.

He said that when he visited the school he found out that the food was delicious and was served with good quality. However, when one of the parents refrained from permitting their child to have breakfast, he said that he asked the police to take him into custody and he also warned other parents that a transfer certificate would be issued to the students if they do not permit their students to have breakfast. 

He said that he advised the parents to not misguide their children. 

Following this, he said the parents acknowledged their mistake and said that they would never repeat it.