Hyderabad: Parents of Delhi Public School, Nacharam staged a protest after the school management distributed date-expired chocolate packets to students on Children’s Day. School authorities assured the parents they have sent the chocolates for analysis and are likely to receive the report on Friday.
The Nacharam Police station has registered a FIR against the chocolate distributors and the case is under investigation. Annoyed parents said the distribution of date-expired chocolates was highly acceptable and demanded stern action against the school authorities.
The school, in a text message, told parents: ‘’Dear Parents it is a matter of grave concern that some of the chocolate packets distributed today had a back dated date. School assures that this matter is being seriously investigated. We have received an assurance from the manufacturer that only the packaging material is backdated. School assures all parents that we would be providing all the required information at the earliest. The chocolates samples have been sent for analysis. We are likely to receive the report tomorrow which will be shared with the parents (sic).”
Mr Chandra Shekhar, a parent, said, “The school gave chocolate packets contains 50 units to all the students on Children’s Day. The chocolates were manufactured in December 2014 and the date expired on November 2016. Also the chocolates were not branded, and the school authorities did not care to check the expiry date. Who gives 50 units of chocolate to each and every child?”
Mrs Srilatha, another parent, said “The school never gave such gifts on any occasion. This is the first time and we noticed that the date on a few packets were erased, few had no manufacturing and expiry dates and a few were beyond the expiry date. This is complete negligence of the school management. Thank God they just gave chocolates, anything which would have had moisture content would have affected the children.”
She said families used to advise children not to not to accept or eat anything given by strangers. Now, they have to tell students not to eat anything given by the school.
Nacharam sub-inspector Venkat Reddy said, “We received a complaint today from the school that they were cheating by the the chocolate distributor. We have booked an FIR against the distributor under IPC Sections 420 (cheating), 272 (food adulteration) and 273 (sale of adulterated food). Further investigations are going on.”
DPS Nacharam Principal Sunitha Rao, said the school had booked a case against Singhania Food International, who had sold the chocolates to the school. We gave them the order because they were (owned by) one of the parents and we trusted them. We had asked them to pack assorted chocolates in transparent polythene cover but the packages came in a different coloured pack.”
“When two parents alerted that the one of the packets had a backdated date, they assured that only the packet was old because the person who packed the chocolates used old packaging.”
“We have initiated an inquiry against the distributors and the report will come soon. Thankfully nothing has happened to the children and all of them came to school today.”
