Mid-Day Meal is a scheme introduced by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development meant to provide mid-day meal to the students coming from weaker sections of society. The main purpose of the scheme is to provide at least one nutritious meal to the poor students whose parents cannot afford it on their own. It was to maintain the health and well being of the budding youth of this country. The scheme was also implemented in our State.
However, notwithstanding the good and humanitarian intentions behind the scheme, the implementation part of it was marred by numerous irregularities and lacunae that at times one would think the scheme as a failure. The truth is that the scheme is not a failure; it is the implementation part of it that is faulty and full of contradictions. There have been so many complaints from students, parents and even the teachers who have been deployed in schools to run the scheme. Though there is lot of paper work yet on the ground lacunae remain. At several times the matter of the faults in the scheme and some visible shortcomings were examined and instructions given to set them right yet there is no smooth sailing. Many a time the Government is accused of taking things leisurely and not responding to the questions and suggestions that are made by the Ministry of HRD.
The Performance Audit of the scheme for the years 2009-10 to 2013-14 was conducted by the Director General Audit Central Expenditure and submitted to Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), which in its Report No.36 of 2015 highlighted numerous shortcomings vis-à-vis implementation of scheme in Jammu and Kashmir as well as in other States of the country. In normal course of things, the State Government should have taken the views of the report into consideration, explained the reason for some shortcomings and also implemented the suggestions put forth in the report so that the entire scheme would run smoothly to the benefit of the student community for which it was meant. But contrary to this, the State Government just slept over the matter and did not care to respond to repeated reminders from the HRD Ministry asking for the status report of the scheme. Some of the matters that were touched upon in the report are really serious and no responsible Government will try to push these under the carpet. No Action Taken Note has been forwarded to the Union Government and in this way many doubts are created albeit unnecessarily. General observations of the CAG report underline lack of separate Mid-Day Meal Directorate; lack of dedicated management/manpower for the scheme; delay in roll-out of Automated Monitoring System; delay in release of funds from State to schools; delay in construction of kitchen-cum-stores; delay in procurement of kitchen devices; less coverage of children and non-initiation of steps towards social audit of the scheme etc. These are all very serious matters and one fails to understand how a scheme can run successfully if these glaring lacunae are there and are not removed despite repeated reminders. Notably proper match of enrolment data is imperative as the same forms the basis for allocation of food grains and cooking cost by the Ministry.Similarly, in the audit variation in food-grains allocated and lifted was pointed out and State was asked to furnish reply on this aspect. As per instructions of MHRD, the State is required to engage reputed institutes or National Accreditation Board for Laboratories for checking quality of Mid-Day Meal but J&K has yet not taken any serious step in this regard despite the fact that it had to furnish reply on these aspects in a time bound manner.
Mid-Day Meal is an important function at school level. The Government should have no hesitation in accepting that the scheme is not running smoothly and that it is its responsibility to make it functional strictly in accordance with the norms laid down by the HRD Ministry.
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