Post News Network
New Delhi: The Centre has extend mid-day meals (MDM) to schoolchildren in 27 drought-hit districts of Orissa during summer vacation.
The noon meal programme will be implemented in 27 districts of Orissa along with 201 districts of nine other states across the country. The Centre shall pay `468.89 crore for the MDM scheme and the remaining amount will be funded by the state governments. The Central move is expected to benefit 25.5 million children, or nearly 25 per cent of all MDM beneficiaries, usually children from poor families.
A majority of these students are from drought-hit states of Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
The country is in the grip of a severe drought with nearly 40 per cent of its districts facing acute weather uncertainties that may affect rural economy.
After the drought in 2015, this year, 266 districts of 11 states have been declared drought-hit.
