No grant, mid-day meal scheme comes to a halt

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, December 18

The mid-day meal scheme in government schools across the state has come to a virtual halt due to the non-availability of funds. The situation is such that only 17 per cent of the total 24.85 lakh eligible students are getting food in schools.

As per a report by the Mid-Day Meal Society, the food was served to only 4.18 lakh students last week. Of the total 19,881 schools in the state, the mid-day meal was cooked in 5,439.

For the last about one month, the food is not being cooked in most of the schools for non-release of grant by the state government.

On Saturday, out of 45,160 beneficiary students in 416 schools in Faridkot district, only 2,545 were served food in 28 schools. In Tarn Taran, of 796 schools, the meal was cooked in 39 schools. Similar is the situation in other districts.

The government has not released funds under the scheme since August. On November 12, the Education Department had released cooking cost for 20 days.

Parveen Sharma, president, Punjab Mid-Day Meal Workers and Cooking Staff Union, said schoolteachers were already shouldering the burden of huge unpaid dues of groceries, vegetables and other items. “We have thus given a call to stop cooking mid-day meal in all schools,” he added.

Prabhcharan Singh, state manager, Mid-Day Meal Scheme, said funds were released as per availability. More money would be released in the coming days once it was received from the government, he added.