Journalist booked for video of salt-roti midday meal

A case has been registered against a journalist, village-head representative and others for allegedly doing "despicable work" of maligning the image of the Uttar Pradesh government by recording a video of school children being served salt and roti in midday meal.

Journalist Pawan Kumar Jaiswal, village-head representative Rajkumar Pal and unidentified people have been booked under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharging duty), 193 (false evidence) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code, a senior officer said.

The FIR was lodged on Saturday on the complaint of Mirzapur block education officer Prem Shankar Ram at Ahiraura police station.

According to the complaint, Jaiswal and Pal conspired and deliberately made the video in a well-planned manner and did "despicable work" of maligning the image of the state government.

The FIR states that Pal was aware that only rotis were cooked and vegetable was not cooked in the school, but "instead of arranging it", he called the journalist, who works in print media and "pressed him to run it" in electronic media.

"The journalist shot the video on his mobile and shared it to a electronic media agency," it said.

The video of students of the Siyur Primary School in Jamalpur block of Mirzapur district being served salt and roti in their midday meal had gone viral on the social media on August 22, triggering outrage and leading to the suspension of two teachers.

As per norms under the flagship nutrition scheme, pulses, rice, rotis, vegetables, with fruits and milk on certain days, are to be served to school-going children to ensure necessary nutrition to them.

The midday meal scheme is designed to provide a minimum of 450 calories per child per day, which should include at least 12 grams of protein too each day. These meals should be served to each child at least 200 days a year.