Midday meals: No kitchen in 42% Schools, 37% use firewood stove

JAMMU: The casual approach of the state government for implementing Mid Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) can be gauged from the fact that 42 per cent schools have been cooking meals in absence proper kitchen. Moreover, the 37 per cent schools are using firewood stove to cook the meals.

Despite liberal funding from union government under Mid Day Meal Scheme (MDMS), the 5000 schools in the Jammu and Kashmir have been cooking meals in the absence of proper kitchen.

“The state government has availability funds of Rs 85 crore for the construction of 12000 kitchens but the government has been successfully constructed 7000 so far,” official sources told The News Now.

“Moreover, the government has also failed to provide LPG facility to the schools for the cooking of the mid day meal as majority of the schools used primitive firewood for cooking purpose,” they said.

“Out of total 23000 schools, only 14,500 schools are using LPG as to cook meals while other 8500 are still using firewood,” they added.

The issue had come under discussion in the recently convened Project Approval Board (PAB) meeting by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

Pertinently, the Supreme Court, last year, slapped a fine on five states including Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi, saying they were “not taking seriously” the matter related to implementation of the mid-day meal scheme in schools.

The apex court directed states of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Jammu and Kashmir to pay Rs one lakh each as costs for their failure to create an online link along with a chart meant for monitoring the implementation and hygiene of mid-day meal scheme in government-run schools.

“The mid-day meal scheme, which is of considerable benefit to the children in the country, is not being taken seriously by several states. Data has not been supplied and there are allegations made by the petitioner about foodgrains disappearing and not reaching the schools and thereby denying the benefit of mid-day meal scheme to children,” the bench had

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