M A I N   N E W S

Lapses in mid-day meal scheme
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, April 22 — Contrary to the provision of distributing cooked food to primary school students under the centrally sponsored mid-day meal scheme, the Himachal Pradesh Government has given raw rice worth Rs 37.57 crore to the children.

Although the scheme envisaged that the local bodies would develop institutional arrangement for providing cooked food within a period of two years of the commencement of the scheme in August 1995, nothing was done in this direction.

Serious lapses in the implementation of the scheme have been pointed out by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in his report for the year 1999.

The Director took the plea in May last year that cooked food was not supplied due to the huge expenditure on account of employing cooks, purchase of utensils and fuel and construction of sheds.The CAG has pointed out that the contention of the Director was not tenable as remuneration for cooking of foodgrains as well as the expenditure on the construction of kitchen sheds was reimbursable by the Centre.

The scheme provided that rice at the rate of 3 kg per student per month was to be distributed for a period of 10 academic months, but test checks during August 1995, to January, 1999, in the three districts of Bilaspur, Mandi and Sirmour indicated that 9,353 quintals of rice valued at Rs 92.82 lakh was not distributed to over 36,000 students in 512 schools. The schools where the students did not get any rice for a period ranging between three and 17 months were located in Dharampur, Ghumarwin, Mandi Sadar, Paonta Sahib, Sataun, Sundernagar and Swarghat.

Ironically, the Deputy Commissioners of these districts, who were chairmen of the committees to oversee the implementation of the programme, were not aware of the foodgrains not being supplied to the students.

The CAG has pointed out that no rice was lifted from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) in April 1997 and April, July, August and September, 1998, depriving 6.58 lakh students in 6,652 primary schools of the benefit of the scheme in April, 1997, and 6.94 lakh students in 10,712 schools in 1998.

The objective of the scheme was to give boost to the universalisation of primary education by increasing enrolment, retention and attendance and simultaneously improving the nutrition of students.

A committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary was set up in September, 1995, to oversee the implementation of the scheme, but it never met after May, 1996, and monitoring of the scheme was abandoned.

The report has pointed out pilferage of rice in Sataun and Surla areas of Sirmour district where 133 quintals of rice valuing Rs 1.32 lakh lifted for distribution to 1,900 students remained undistributed.

The state government did not fix any target for the coverage of schools, enrolment, attendance and retention of students. The Director had no data relating to dropouts and did not monitor the incidence of dropouts during 1995-99.