Sir,
This is in reference to the news “Mid Day Meal scheme at verge of closure in 12500 Govt Schools” published in DE July 20, 2017.It is very disheartening that about 12,500 Government Schools in Jammu Province are facing acute shortage of funds since Dec 2016 which has resulted almost stoppage of Mid Day Meals in majority of these schools as the liability on account of this scheme has crossed Rs 25 crores due to non release of funds from the Central Government.
It is mentioned that earlier Centre was providing 65% and 35% funds share was of state Government but now, it is in the ratio of 90:10.State is now contributing just 10 percent but delay in release of funds has aggravated the problem to provide mid day meals to the students. With the hope that the funds would be provided by the Government, many teachers have incurred expenses from their own resources/pockets .This is also true that teachers are taking food/ recipe items/LPG/ fuel etc on credit from the shopkeepers who have also refused to give the same on credit. It is also learnt that the school teachers used to take money on loan from school funds to run the scheme.
In his statement Minister of Education has told that the old pattern of cooking through teachers is being replaced with the NGOs for cooking Mid Day Meals. He said in district Jammu and Samba, NGOs are being engaged to cook food for children shortly and this system will be introduced in all the other districts of the state. It is a good step of the Government because the teachers would be free from the extra burden of cooking as their services will be utilized for educational purposes only. However, it would have been more appropriate to provide required funds to all the concerned schools of Jammu Province to clear their liabilities before introduction of proposed scheme of NGOs.It is feared that delay in releasing of funds may compel the school authorities to stop mid day meals to their students.
Yours etc…….
S.S.Jamwal, New Plots
Jammu
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