Live
- Police Rescue 9 People Stranded in a Stream
- Trouble in Trinamool: Jawhar Sircar turns down Mamata's request to reconsider resignation decision
- Congress claims BJP's foundation is built on hatred, predicts defeat in Haryana polls
- Doctors' group demands withdrawal of med school quota hike plan
- Tulu Script Officially Added to Unicode Standard, Boosting Digital Communication for Tulu Speakers
- Rachakonda CP Sudhir Babu Inspects Ganesh Immersion Arrangements
- UP: Atal Residential School's girl student selected for ISRO visit
- Petroleum SPB, Railway SPB book QF berths in Inter-Department National Hockey Championship
- Sad day for democracy, says Borrell as Venezuela's Gonzalez seeks political asylum in Spain
- Lucknow tragedy: Government sets up three-member panel to probe building collapse
Auditing of mid day meal scheme on the anvil
The officials of the Directorate of School Education have decided to crack a whip against erring government schools which have failed to provide nutritious food to students as part of the mid-day meal scheme. Â
- The Directorate of School Education has entrusted the responsibility of the task to SSAAT, a wing under Rural Development
- Decision is taken in the wake of reports that authorities in some schools are not providing nutritious food and deliberately driving up number of students benefited by the scheme
- An interim report is likely to be submitted by January-end
Hyderabad: The officials of the Directorate of School Education have decided to crack a whip against erring government schools which have failed to provide nutritious food to students as part of the mid-day meal scheme.
The Directorate has entrusted the responsibility of auditing the mid-day meal scheme in the government school to the Society for Social Audit, Accountability and Transparency (SSAAT). The SSAAT is one of the wings in the Rural Development.
The Directorate has taken the drastic decision in the wake of the reports of irregularities in the implementation of the scheme, which is sponsored by both the Centre and State governments. The Directors has received reports that the nutritious food was not be being provided to the children.
The fine rice being supplied by the State government for mid-day meal scheme is allegedly being misused in some places. The SSAAT has now chalked out a plan to systematically audit the scheme in the schools after Sankranti vacation.
In the first phase, the SSAAT would randomly choose a primary, an upper primary and a high school to audit, the Directorate officials said. The officials would inspect the kitchen, storeroom, quality and quantity of food being given to the students.
“Inspections will be carried out in all the districts,” an official said. The SSAAT teams would also interview students to find out what type of food was being provided to them. The teams were asked to submit an interim report by January-end.
Apart from it, the Directorate is also considering introducing biometric system in all 28,000 schools across the State. It is intended to curtail irregularities in the mid-day meal scheme and also ensure attendance of students.
“Authorities in some school are deliberately driving up the number of students benefited by the mid-day meal scheme. The biometric system will show the number of the students attending school on day-to-day basis,” an official said. A proposal to this effect had already been sent to the
government for approval.
