More money for mid-day meal, yet nothing new on kids’ table

No formal order

• The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has increased the cooking cost for primary classes (I to V) from Rs 3.86 to Rs 4.13 per student per day
• Similarly, the cooking cost for upper primary classes(VI to VIII) has been increased from Rs 5.78 to Rs 6.18 perstudent per day with effect from July 1
• Sources in the state Education Department say they know that the cooking costs have been revised, but they don’t have any formal order in this regard

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, July 8

Despite the fact that the Centre has increased the cooking cost of mid-day meal in government schools with effect from July 1, the state government is yet to implement the orders, courtesy ‘red tape’.

The file in this regard is stuck somewhere in the channel and the school heads in the state are still serving the mid-day meal to students as per the earlier fixed cooking cost.

The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has increased the cooking cost for primary classes (I to V) from Rs 3.86 to Rs 4.13 per student per day. Similarly, the cooking cost for upper primary classes (VI to VIII) has been increased from Rs 5.78 to Rs 6.18 per student per day. The mid-day meal scheme is jointly funded by the Centre and the state government.

Sources in the state Education Department said they knew that the cooking costs had been revised, but they did not have any formal order in this regard.

Prabhcharan Singh, General Manager, Mid-Day Meal Cell, Punjab, said, “The Central government has increased the cooking cost from July 1 for both primary and upper primary classes. The notification in this regard has been sent to the higher-ups for their approval.”

He, however, did not comment about the undue delay in clearing the file in this regard.

Harjinder Singh, Mid-Day Meal Cell, District Coordinator, Muktsar, said, “As per our records, the cooking cost is Rs 3.86 for the primary classes and Rs 5.78 for the upper primary classes. We have not received the copy of any fresh order about the increase in cooking costs.”

Whenever the Centre increased the cooking costs in the past, the state government took nearly a month to implement the orders.

For instance, the documents in possession of The Tribune showed that when the cooking cost was increased from Rs 3.59 to Rs 3.76 for primary classes and Rs 5.38 to Rs 5.64 for upper primary classes with effect from July 1, 2015, the orders were conveyed to the district coordinators on August 4, 2015, after the delay of more than one month.

Similarly, when the cooking cost for primary classes was increased from Rs 3.76 to Rs 3.86 and for upper primary classes from Rs 5.64 to Rs 5.78 with effect from January 1 this year, the orders were issued on February 1 this year after a delay of one month.

Courtesy: The Tribune