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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Worry over cut in school-meal fund

Worry over cut in school-meal fund

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published Published on May 27, 2015   modified Modified on May 27, 2015
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: School education secretary Vrinda Sarup today voiced concern over the reduced allocation in funds for the midday-meal programme, saying she hoped the finance ministry would restore the budget for something that has helped bring back children to school.

"Dialogues are on. We hope the MDM (scheme) would be protected," Sarup told a media conference organised to present the achievements of the human resource development ministry over the past year.

The Narendra Modi government completed a year in office yesterday.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley allotted Rs 9,236 crore for the scheme in his budget for 2015-16, well short of the over Rs 11,000 crore the HRD ministry spent on the scheme the previous year.

The ministry bears 75 per cent of the expenses under the scheme that provides children one hot-cooked meal every day the school is open. Over 10 crore children in government and aided schools have benefited under the scheme.

Sources said the funds cut was likely to affect the scheme because of the increase in cooking costs.

The money set aside for costs under this head is increased by 7.5 per cent every year to take into account the impact of inflation. The current cooking costs per child per day is Rs 3.59 at the primary level and Rs 5.38 at the upper primary level. Besides cooking cost, the Centre funds the entire expenses for food grain, transport assistance and kitchen devices.

The sources said the HRD ministry would need around Rs 5,000 crore in addition to what the budget has allocated to make sure the scheme doesn't suffer in any way.

According to figures available with the ministry, the institutions that monitor the scheme covered 11,663 schools in 304 districts in 30 states and Union territories between April 2013 and September 2014 and found it to be running well, serving quality meals in almost every school. The scheme, the sources said, has also checked student absenteeism.

Some of the concerns over the funds slash relate to delay and irregular payments to cooks-cum-helpers. Asked whether the ministry would increase the honorarium of the 27 lakh cooks-cum-helpers, who spend about five to six hours every day in preparing and serving food and cleaning the utensils, Sarup said the responsibility lay with the states. "Many are paying extra money to the cooks-cum-helpers. Other states should emulate these models."

The honorarium now is Rs 1,000 a month, though some states pay much more. Tamil Nadu, for example, pays Rs 5,500 to each worker - every school has two helpers - while Kerala pays Rs 4,500. Bengal pays Rs 1,500 a month.

Sarup also spoke on the government's commitment to building toilets in every school by August 15. While the gap was about 4.19 lakh toilets, the ministry has already set up 1.21 lakh. Another two lakh would be completed soon, she said.

The Telegraph, 27 May, 2015, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150527/jsp/nation/story_22391.jsp#.VWWRykZr9v0


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