Amritsar: Teachers seek release of mid-day meal grant

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 19

Members of the Democratic Teachers’ Union expressed concern over the delay in payment of cost of preparing mid-day meals that may directly impact the continuation of the scheme.

DTF state president Vikram Dev Singh and secretary Ashwani Awasthi, who is also the district unit head of DTF, sought immediate release of the payment that includes the cost of meal preparation and salaries of the cooks.

“The cost of the meal per child in a school is Rs 7.50 for students of Class VI to VIII and Rs 5 for primary class students. Salaries of cook and other staff in schools is Rs 3,000 per school. The grant in respect of expenditure incurred by schools on mid-day meals has not been paid since the last two months. Teachers are paying for the meals and the cook’s salaries from their own pockets,” said Ashwani.

Mamata Sharma, the provincial general secretary of the Mid-Day Meal Workers’ Union, said around 42,000 mid-day meal workers in Punjab were deprived of their salaries and were protesting to get their salaries.

Ashwani said district education officials were informed of the issue but nothing had been done so far.

Meanwhile, under a new system, a mid-day meal manager is assigned to every district, who accounts the expenditure for mid-day meal in the district and applies for payment through digital mode. The payment of the grant is received through online method, yet there was a delay in the release of grants.

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