PANJIM: Taking note of the confusion prevailing in the implementation of the Mid-day Meal Scheme, this academic year, due to the paucity of funds, the Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat has given indication of sanctioning of funds to the tune of Rs 1 crore, in the first phase of strengthening of the scheme. The Chief Minister also holds the finance portfolio.
The department of education has already forwarded a related file to the Chief Minister’s office. The green signal from the Chief Minister will help the DoE to pay the pending bills of self-help groups, which have been regularly providing food to the school students under the scheme.
Incidentally, the central government has already sanctioned an amount of Rs 5 crore for implementing the Mid-day Meal Scheme in the state, while the increase in the rate of food items, for the purpose of quality, is borne by the state government. However, few technical points raised by the finance department have prevented release of these funds to the department of Education. The DoE, during the past six months, has been following the matter, with no result, as the file is just moving in the administrative corridors of the Secretariat.
The failure on the part of the DoE to pay the bills of the self-help groups since July, has adversely affected the implementation of the scheme, according to many parents and teachers.
A fortnight after the released of the first installment amounting to Rs 1 crore, another installment of equal amount would be released, as per highly placed sources in the government. A number of self-help groups, providing food to the schools by resorting to loans, would get relief after the release of the said funds.
More than 1.63 lakh students from government-run and government-aided schools are benefiting from the scheme, including around 76,000 students from class I to IV and approximately 87,000 from class V to VIII. Meanwhile, in accordance with guidelines issued by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, grievance redressal mechanism has been set up for Mid Day Meal Scheme, by the government of Goa. (NT)
How much amount is going to go to Cowmuth's Swiss bank account out of one crore?
ReplyDeleteI hope a portion of the money has been kept aside to monitor the Food hygiene & safety.
ReplyDeleteIt was recently that some children were contaminated by food poisoning and stomach upsets.
To Chandrakant Kankonkar....you can safely consider at least 10% will be cooked,siphoned, distilled and "FED" to Kamats hungry Swiss account.
True self-help groups will never be allowed to get the contract of preparing good food. Everything is planned much in advance right from the Panchayat office. The royal families and the agents of the politicians will be given preference to start the venture and the rest deserving groups will be engaged but at a price to be given to the politicians or in the hands of his henchmen. This is how the poor quality of meals has been served in the past by these scrupulous takers, and our poor children are taken for a ride in the hospitals for treatments.
ReplyDelete