The Mid-day Meal Scheme, launched by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has flopped in our State. This is no surprise to the observers. Name any one centrally sponsored scheme that has been successfully completed in Jammu & Kashmir. We have often tried to know the reasons for the failure of Centrally sponsored schemes in this State. If we go by the statements of Government functionaries, the reason for non completion of the schemes or even their failure is attributed to non release of funds at proper time. This makes the situation more complicated. Is non-release of funds happening at the level of the Union Government or the State Government? We have analysed this question and we have come to the conclusion that bureaucratic system in our State is so complicated and time consuming that the funds really do not reach the targeted destination because the whole issue has to go through so many complicated layers. Therefore, the onus of delay or incompletion of Centrally sponsored schemes cannot be brought to the doorsteps of the Union Government. If the State administration is not willing to bring about healthy reform in its functionality, no one other than the administration itself can be held responsible. The State Government has to break this mindset if it wants to draw full benefit of the Centrally sponsored schemes.
The issue in hand is of the Mid-day Meals Scheme floated by the Ministry of HRD. It is meant for the entire country including J&K. The purpose of the scheme is simple and most humanistic. We have a fairly large percentage of school going children who come from economically weaker sections. Owing to poverty and backwardness, most of the school going kids have deficiency of nutrients that adversely affect their health. Apart from this, other facilities were earmarked that should accrue to the poor student community. Mid-day meal is a comprehensive scheme that is meant to provide healthy and nutritious meal to poor kids and clean environments, kitchens, lavatories, kitchen-ware and elementary medical facilities to the kids. A survey report obtained by the Ministry of HRD, has found that the Education Department of the State, which is the nodal authority for running the scheme has failed in all parameters set forth for successful implementation of the scheme. These are like coverage of children, number of working days, utilization of food grain, construction of kitchen-cum-stores, procurement of kitchen devices, inspection, availability of drinking water, testing of meal, social audit of scheme and above all screening of children under Rashtriya Bal Suchar Rakhsha Karyakram. In the first place coverage of children has steadily fallen from the year 2012 onwards to present day. Actually one of the essential objectives of the scheme was that the Government wanted to provide initiative to those kids in our rural and remote areas who do not go to school. They would be attracted by the mid-day meal scheme. This purpose has not been realized and the data with us shows there has been steady decline.
It is very unfortunate that the State Education Department has performed miserably in this particular scheme. The State Government repeatedly assured the HRD Ministry that mechanism of regular inspection of the scheme would be put in place but nothing has been done in this connection. HRD Ministry has been assured by the State Education Department that District Magistrates would be requested for deploying officials for MDM inspection at school level. But the situation is contrary as neither the District Magistrates are deploying officials for inspection nor is the Education Department doing anything in this direction on its own. Under the scheme, the State Government was provided funds to build 4697 kitchen-cum-store units but this has not been completed. The mid-day meal was served to children on 153 days a year as against the approval of 176 days a year. Shockingly, there is no mechanism in Jammu and Kashmir for food sample testing. Even the option of getting food samples tested through convergence with other concerned departments like Health has not been explored till date despite commitments made with the Union HRD Ministry in this regard. Here we will point out that only recently we dealt in these columns on the poor and unworthy quality of food provided to the students besides the question of non release of funds to the great discomfiture of the students and the teachers. The Ministry had sanctioned funds for procurement of 3431 kitchen devices—-1312 during 2013-14 and 2119 during 2014-15 but again slackness of the concerned officers created hurdles in utilization of funds.
In final analysis, the question of non-implementation of highly useful schemes like the one we have taken up here is a loss to the people of the state in the long run. We are apprehensive that there is a vicious circle within the administration that is bent upon scuttling the scheme of the Central Government that, otherwise, would be highly beneficial to the people in general. This trend needs to be arrested.
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