Rice and stale pooris kept on the floor of a stadium toilet were served to the participants of a three-day state-level U-17 girls' kabaddi tournament in the Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh. The incident took place in a toilet complex at a sports stadium in Saharanpur, as pictures, as well as a video of the same, is being widely circulated on social media.
The same cooked rice was served to around 200 players, alleged a junior player who wished to remain anonymous, according to a report by a leading English daily newspaper. The player further claimed, "Food, including rice, 'dal' and 'sabji' were cooked in large vessels on a traditional brick oven near the swimming pool.
Speaking to Times of India, the sports officer of Saharanpur Animesh Saxena dismissed the allegations, terming them as 'totally baseless'. "Food served to players here is of good quality."
From the vessel, the cooked rice was being put on a huge vessel and placed on the toilet floor as can be seen in the video. Next to the rice were the leftover 'pooris' callously lying on a piece of paper on the floor. The rice was served to the players for lunch on Friday.
"There was a space crunch and the food was cooked near the stadium pool," said Saxena, who reprimanded the cooks after a few players raised the issue.
Speaking to Sports Tak, Additional District Magistrate (Finance and Revenue) Rajnish Kumar Mishra said, "There was a competition going on in the stadium in which where food was served, some issue of some dirty toilet has been found, in respect of which DM sahib has handed over the investigation to me. The report has been sought in the day. Tomorrow I will go and investigate, whatever facts will come to light, I will submit the report to the District Magistrate."
Photo credits: Twitter Video screengrab
