A row has erupted in Madhya Pradesh after a video circulating on social media showed students of a school in Maihar district being served their special Republic Day midday meal on scraps of paper, including torn notebook pages, The Indian Express reported on Wednesday.

The district administration took cognisance of the matter after the video triggered outrage. A proposal has been forwarded to the Rewa divisional commissioner to suspend the principal, according to The New Indian Express.

The midday meal programme under the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman is a centrally-sponsored scheme that is aimed at providing nutritious meals to students enrolled in government and aided schools.

The incident in Maihar had taken place on Monday at the Government High School in Bhatigwan village. Students sitting on the floor were served puri and halwa on ink-stained pages torn from old books, The Indian Express reported.

Maihar District Collector Rani Batad said that the district administration had taken cognisance of the matter and initiated action against those responsible.

Rajesh Singh, public relations officer for Satna and Maihar, said that the district administration acted after receiving an inquiry report from District Project Coordinator Vishnu Tripathi.

Vishnu Tripathi told the newspaper that the arrangement violated basic norms and added that the responsibility lay with the school administration.

He said that the preliminary inquiry established that the principal was responsible for ensuring proper arrangements for the midday meal.

“Such negligence on a national occasion like Republic Day is unacceptable,” the newspaper quoted Vishnu Tripathi as saying. He added that a report had been submitted to the district administration recommending strict action.

Singh also said that a “proposal to suspend the in-charge principal of Government High School Bhatigwan, Sunil Kumar Tripathi, has been forwarded to the Commissioner, Rewa division”, The Indian Express reported.

The public relations officer added that the salary of Pradeep Singh, a contract employee and the block resource coordinator, had been deducted for one month.

The incident on Monday came nearly two months after another video from a school in Hullpur village in the state’s Sheopur district showed students in a school eating their midday meals on a newspaper.

At the time, Sheopur District Collector Arpit Verma had ordered an inquiry by the sub-divisional magistrate into the matter. After the inquiry confirmed the incident, the self-help group responsible for serving the meals was terminated and a show-cause notice was issued to the principal of the school.

Sharing the video on social media, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Mohan Yadav should feel ashamed for nurturing “India’s future” in such a “pitiable state”.