Sandeep Mishra
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Nov 3: The state government has introduced chana dal instead of arhar (split red gram) in the mid-day-meal (MDM) at schools much before the arhar prices went up.
The MDM scheme, which aims at maintaining the nutrition standard among the schoolchildren, is running in violation of guidelines set by the Union government. The guidelines clearly say that children should be served with protein rich pulses like arhar. However, the schools switched over to chana dal six months ago when the price of arhar had started rising. According to sources this happened because the price rose beyond the amount provided by school and mass education department to the schools under MDM scheme.
As per revised rates of ration to schools during the current fiscal, the school administrators are getting Rs 86 for one kg dal whereas arhar prices hovered around Rs 90 to 160 during the past six months.
The government, in an attempt to avoid drawing criticism for its inability to serve adequate quantity of dal to schoolchildren, has decided to serve dalma (a dish comprising vegetables and dal) in the MDM menu.
“The state government had been providing Rs 70 to buy a kilo of dal before September but it was revised to Rs 86 recently. Even at the revised rate, it became impossible for us to buy arhar, so we switched over to chana dal which costs between Rs 70 and Rs 90,” said an upper primary school teacher here on the request of anonymity.
Dal is being served to students every Monday and Thursday, Soya every Tuesday and Friday and eggs Wednesday and Saturday. According to the revised rates of ration, schools are getting Rs 70 for a litre of vegetable oil, Rs 75 for a kilo of soya, Rs 170 for spices, Rs 17 for a kilo of salt, Rs 5 for eggs, and Rs 3 for a kg of firewood.
In primary schools, per head spending for lunch on Monday and Thursday is Rs 3.46, Rs 2.66 on Tuesday and Friday and Rs 6.51 on Wednesday and Saturday. The average ration cost for a primary student is Rs 4.21.
Similarly, per head rates for upper primary schools are pegged at Rs 5.46 for Mondays and Thursdays (with dal), Rs 5.27 for Tuesdays and Fridays (with soya) and Rs 8.15 for Wednesdays and Saturdays (with eggs). The average ration cost of an upper primary student is Rs 6.29.
“The amount being provided by the government under MDM is very less. In such a scenario, we often have to substitute food items to adjust with the money, otherwise it would be impossible to run the scheme,” said the teacher.
State nodal officer for MDM programme Gangadhar Sahu said the schools have been asked to add seasonal vegetables even before the dal price sky-rocketed.
“It has long been notified to the schools to add vegetables in dal to increase the nutrition level of the dish. The heads of the schools have also been asked to utilise funds from other sources, if necessary, to ensure that MDM scheme runs smoothly,” Sahu added.
